Music
Everett Barksdale
1910–1986 · jazz guitarist, session musician
Detroit-born guitarist of Art Tatum's trio and busy New York session player, heard on "Love Is Strange" and the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk".
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Inglewood, California
aged 75- Detroit years
- 1910–1930s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Everett Barksdale grew up in Detroit playing bass and banjo before he settled on the guitar. In the 1930s he moved to Chicago to join Erskine Tate's band, made his first records in 1931 with violinist Eddie South and stayed with South until 1939. In New York he joined Benny Carter's big band, recorded with Sidney Bechet, and in the 1940s became a CBS staff musician. From 1949 until Tatum's death in 1956 he played guitar in Art Tatum's trio, one of the most demanding jobs in jazz. Through the 1950s and 1960s he was in the ABC house band and one of New York's most versatile session guitarists, recording with Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and Louis Armstrong, serving as music director for the Ink Spots, and playing on pop and R&B hits including Mickey & Sylvia's "Love Is Strange" and the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk" and "Saturday Night at the Movies." He retired to California in the 1970s and died in Inglewood in 1986.
Highlights
- With violinist Eddie South from 1931 to 1939
- Guitarist in Art Tatum's trio, 1949–1956
- Played on "Love Is Strange" and "Under the Boardwalk"
- Music director for the Ink Spots