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Renowned jazz saxophonist dies
On this day in 1939, the saxophonist and composer Herschel Evans died of
heart disease in New York City. Evans, a native of Denton, Texas, was
only thirty at the time of his death, but had already established a
formidable reputation in the jazz world. His cousin Eddie Durham,
himself a legendary musician, convinced a young Evans to switch from
alto to tenor sax. After spending some years in Kansas City, Evans
returned to Texas in the 1920s. By the mid-1930s he was a featured
soloist with Count Basie's big band, and his musical duels with Lester
Young, as on the Basie hit "One O'Clock Jump," are considered jazz
classics. Evans also recorded with Teddy Wilson and composed the hit
songs "Texas Shuffle" and "Doggin' Around." He was a major influence on
such later tenor players as Illinois Jacquet and Arnett Cobb.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- EVANS, HERSCHEL
- DURHAM, EDDIE
- WILSON, THEODORE SHAW [TEDDY]
- COBB, ARNETT CLEOPHUS
- JAZZ
- Links to other Web sites (will be opened in new browser window)
- Handbook of Texas Music
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- NAACP leader born in Round Rock (1902)
- Texas pays beef bill, twelve years late (1854)
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