Arnett Howard

Arnett Howard
Background information
Birth name Arnett Howard
Born September 6, 1950
Origin Welch, West Virginia, United States
Genres Jazz
Occupation(s) Trumpeter, Keyboardist
Years active 1967–present
Website creolefunk.com

Arnett Howard (born September 6, 1950) is an African American jazz musician, journalist, teacher, author, historian, and official ambassador for Columbus, Ohio.

Life

Arnett was born September 6, 1950 in Welch, West Virginia, but was raised in Plain City, Ohio. He graduated from Jonathan Alder High School in 1968,[1] where he played trumpet in the school's marching band. After high school, he started taking classes at Capital University in 1968, but left college in 1970 to pursue his musical career. He eventually graduated from Capital in 1999. Howard returned to Capital University in 2007, as a teacher, to teach a class called "Columbus Jazz History".[2] He has also co-authored the books Columbus: The Musical Crossroads,[3] Listen for the Jazz: Key Notes in Columbus History,[4] and Ohio Jazz: A History of Jazz in the Buckeye State.[5]

Musician

Howard first started playing music professionally in 1967. He was a member of several local bands including "The Soul Internationals", "The Vadicans", "The Metronomes", "Dave Workman's Blues Band", "Cash McCall and his Bumswipe Blues Band Boys" and "The Soul Superbs". He led "Arnett Howard's Creole Funk Band" from 1988 to 2002, and became such a legend in the Columbus region that he is now an ambassador for the City of Columbus.[6] Howard retired from Croele Funk Band in 2002, and his new band is simply called "Arnett Howard & Friends". Since 1985, Howard has performed more than 4,000 concerts in central Ohio and around the world.[7] In 2003, he also played with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.

He is also known for writing the "Football Friday Night" theme song for Columbus' WCMH-TV.

Selected discography

References

  1. AlderAlumni.com, Class of 1968 Profile - Arnett Howard
  2. Keeper of Delaware County's Arts Castle to retire, The Columbus Dispatch, February 12, 2007
  3. Aaron Beck, Rich heritage of music, musicians in Columbus strike a chord, Columbus Dispatch, August 10, 2008
  4. Jazz Academy Faculty
  5. http://www.artsfoundationofoldetowne.org/ohiojazz
  6. Scott Houston, Arnett Howard, Mills James Productions
  7. Scott Rawdon, Event entertainment takes skill in art of pleasing all., Business First-Columbus, November 9, 2001

External links