Singleton Palmer

Popular St. Louis jazz musician and band leader

Birth: November 13, 1912

Death: March 8, 1993

Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri

Date of Interview: August 9, 1981

Interviewer: Dan Havens

Singleton Palmer began playing trumpet in the late 1930's at Sumner High School. He soon began to play the tuba. Then, in the 1930's, he learned to play string bass. Mr. Palmer went on to perform with the Oliver Cobb Orchestra, Erskine Tate's Orchestra, Fate Marable, Dewey Jackson, and the George Hudson Orchestra. He left St. Louis in 1947 to play string bass for Count Basie's band. He returned in 1950 and started his own band, the Dixieland Six, a group that he would lead for more than forty years. This popular group performed regularly at the Opera House in Gaslight Square and on the Robert E. Lee and Goldenrod showboats.

This is the table of contents for the interview of Singleton Palmer. It is part of the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive which is located in Lovejoy Library at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

For a complete contents list of all musician interviews for the oral history project, please click on this link: Oral History and Research Materials.

If interested in reviewing these materials from the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive, please contact Therese Dickman, Fine Arts Librarian.

Tape # Side	Time	Subject
1 a	001-033	Biographical - name, family
1 a	034-068	trumpet lessons, tuba lessons, reasons for change
1 a	069-111	Mose Wiley's Band, personnel
1 a	112-130	tunes played, reading charts
1 a	131-151	pay received, types of jobs, towns played in
1 a	152-174	taxi dances
1 a	175-221	Best bands in St. Louis - mid - 20's
1 a	222-256	music lessons
1 a	257-278	marching bands, parades in St. Louis
1 a	279-310	parents, becoming career musician, style of playing
1 a	311-362	Oliver Cobb Band, personnel, places played, pay
1 a	363-375	playing Coliseum with Louis Armstrong in St. Louis
1 a	376-432	Eddie Johnson's Crackerjacks, personnel, pay places
1 a	433-490	Travel as Erskine Tate Band, switch to bass viol
1 a	491-526	Hawaiian Club excursion to Chicago, contact with Erskine Tate, travel
1 a	527-549	Plantation Club, 1933, personnel, hours, pay
1 a	550-569	Walter "Crack" Stanley, sets of music, shows at club
1 a	570-579	Joe "Ziggy" Johnson, Plantation Club
1 a	580-594	Erskine Tate - Travel
1 a	595-622	String bass, Truck Parham
1 a	623-630	types of crowds
1 a	631-653	arranging for band, Tab Smith
1 a	654-667	marriage
1 a	668-737	Fats Waller fronts band, tour, Waller's style
1 b	004-027	Cincinnati; Crystal Ballroom
1 b	028-039	Chicago excursion
1 b	040-051	Joined Dewey Jackson's band, 1937
1 b	052-069	Playing on the boat with Eddie Johnson; Idlewild
1 b	070-102	Dewey Jackson Band personnel
1 b	103-114	Streckfuss Boat "St. Paul" with Jackson
1 b	115-143	Change from Johnson to Jackson
1 b	144-187	Changes in Jackson band; big band on the "St. Paul"
1 b	188-263	Tunes played; sets; types of crowds
1 b	264-302	Unions in St. Louis; subsidiary 197
1 b	303-332	Fate Marable Band; personnel
1 b	333-345	Pay scales - black and white
1 b	346-379	After - hours clubs
1 b	380-424	Out-of-town bands in St. Louis; jamming
1 b	425-440	Best white bands and musicians
1 b	441-467	Black vaudeville; out-of-town musicians
1 b	468-529	George Hudson Band; personnel; arrangements
1 b	530-615	Travel with Hudson Band; eastern theater circuit; "Round the Horn; Duke Ellington sits in; Savoy Theater
1 b	616-633	Castle Farms, Cincinnati; Eddie Johnson
1 b	634-733	Joining Count Basie Band 1947; personnel
1 b	734-743	Pay with Basie
2 a	008-119	Basie Band; theater dates; artists played with
2 a	120-147	Universal Dance Hall; resignation from Basie Band
2 a	148-164	Palmer's daughter
2 a	165-220	Working with Basie Band; tunes; Fats Waller; Freddy Greene
2 a	221-256	Recording with band
2 a	257-350	Anecdotes from Basie band; recording
2 a	351-363	Jimmy Rushing; other musicians in band
2 a	364-384	Paul Gonsalves
2 a	385-402	Coleman Hawkins; "Body and Soul"
2 a	403-442	Cities where Basie Band played
2 a	443-452	Return to St. Louis; Scullins Steel job
2 a	453-482	Regal Theater, Chicago; Hudson Band during War
2 a	483-512	First version of Dixieland Six; May 1950; personnel
2 a	513-533	Universal Dance Hall; personnel; Sunday sessions
2 a	534-560	Formation of Dixieland Six; Forest Park Hotel sudden dismissal - no " Mixed Bands"
2 a	561-574	First recording with own band
2 a	575-584	Jobs after Forest Park Hotel; Top Hat Club; Windemere Club; The Spa
2 a	585-598	Dewey Jackson leaves band; Vertna Saunders comes on
2 a	599-630	Palladium Lounge; East St. Louis
2 a	631-676	Racial prejudice; integration; effects of
2 a	677-697	Success of Palmer's Band
2 a	698-714	Gaslight Square; Opera House 1958; Saunders leaves, Bill Martin takes place
2 a	715-743	Personnel changes - Al Guichard, Norman Mason, Dave Harris, Kimball Dial
2 b	007-105	Clarinet players with band
2 b	106-143	Other musicians with Palmer's band
2 b	144-173	Materials, tunes
2 b	174-190	Recording
2 b	191-231	Best unit of band - Bill Martin, Leon King, Norman Mason, Ben Thigpen
2 b	232-258	Changes Palmer would make in his life
2 b	259-314	Gaslight Square - demise of; other bands playing there
2 b	315-325	Phyllis Diller Show
2 b	326-349	Delmar Blvd. clubs in 1950's; musicians heard there
2 b	350-394	Television work
2 b	395-436	St. Louis Jazz Club; Ragtime Festival - lack of local musicians
2 b	437-457	Other jobs held
2 b	458-491	Claude Abney; Changes in life; music style
2 b	492-542	Tuba Symposium, Bloomington, Ind.
2 b	543-577	Influences on playing; other musicians
2 b	578-614	Own style of playing; what makes a jazz musician
2 b	615-703	Milt Hinton; other bass players and young bass men
2 b	704-731	Influences on musicians
2 b	732-745	Best bands ever heard - Basie, Ellington

E-mail comments and inquiries about the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive to Therese Dickman at tdickma@siue.edu or call 618-650-2695.