Hayes Pillars

Jazz saxophone and orchestra leader

Birth:

Death: August 11, 1992

Birthplace: Little Rock, Arkansas

Date of Interview: 1981

Place of Interview: Narrator's Home

Interviewer: Charles E. Rose

Hayes Pillars began playing saxophone as a teenager. In January 1934 he and his friend, James Jeter, organized the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra while in Cleveland, OH. On July 4, 1934 the orchestra came to play a six-week engagement at the Club Plantation in St. Louis; they were so popular they stayed eleven years. The group also played at the Club Riviera on Delmar Blvd as well as at the Apollo Theater in New York, and at jazz clubs in Chicago. After the group disbanded, Mr. Pillars continued to play for more than thirty years for private parties and in area country clubs. He retired in the early 1980's. In 1981, the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. honored him for his contributions to American Jazz.

This is the table of contents for the interview of Hayes Pillars. 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	000-026	E arly life; interest in music
1 a	027-089	Saxophone; learning music
1 a	090-120	First band
1 a	121-0140	Second band; own band
1 a	141-178	First St. Louis job; Club Plantation
1 a	179-203	Band personnel
1 a	204-250	Musician's unions
1 a	251-278	Position of Jeter - Pillars band in St.Louis; other
1 a	279-348	Bands prominent at that time jazz - origin of - how different
1 a	349-372	Ragtime music - influence on jazz
1 a	373-397	Jeter - Pillars band - type of music
1 a	398-414	Development of jazz
1 a	415-470	St. Louis "style"; late teen, early twenties
1 a	471-490	R ace problem; white bands
1 a	491-500	Other clubs and bands
1 a	501-543	"Black" music vs. "white" music; American jazz
1 a	544-580	Early jazz in St. Louis
1 a	581-615	Rhythm and blues; blues; rock and roll
1 a	616-629	Dissolution of band
1 a	630-727	Government tax on dance clubs; effect on big bands
1 a	728-770	Problems facing black musicians
1 a	771-781	Technique and tone
1 a	782-823	Music structure
1 a	824-857	Black and white musicians
1 a	858-879	Gus Wilson
1 a	880-915	Drugs and bad environment surrounding musicians
1 a	916-940	Bands popular around St. Louis
1 a	941-962	P opularity of Jeter - Pillars Band
1 a	963-977	Nationally know musicians who played in St. Louis
2 a	002-089	"Swing" music, Benny Goodman
2 a	090-117	Fletcher Henderson Band
2 a	118-130	Druie Bess
2 a	131-167	Tone and technique
2 a	168-269	St. Louis Contribution to jazz
2 a	270-295	Enjoyment of music

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