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RAMEY, GENE (1913-1984). Gene Ramey, jazz bassist, was born in Austin, Texas, on April 4, 1913. He attended Anderson High School and played trumpet in college. He also played sousaphone with George Corley's Royal Aces. In the early 1930s he played with the Moonlight Serenaders and Terence Holder's band before moving to Kansas City in 1932. He learned to play string bass from the famous Kansas City bassist Walter Page and was soon leading his own bands. During the 1930s he also worked with Oliver Todd's band and Margaret "Countess" Johnson. He played with Jay McShann off and on between 1938 and 1944. During this period Ramey worked closely with McShann's alto sax player, Charlie Parker, who became one of the most innovative jazz soloists. Ramey moved to New York in 1944 and began playing with many of the era's most prominent bandleaders, including Luis Russell, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, John Hardee, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Miles Davis, Dizzie Gillespie, Oran "Hot Lips" Page, Tiny Grimes, Lester Young, and others. In the 1950s Ramey played for Count Basie, Dorothy Donegan, Art Blakey, Eartha Kitt, and others. In the late 1950s he played numerous studio engagements as a freelance session bassist. In the 1960s he worked with Mugsy Spanier, Teddy Wilson, Dick Wellswood, Jimmy Rushing, and Peanuts Hucko, and toured in Europe with Jay McShann and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. In 1976 Ramey returned to Austin from New York and announced his retirement, but lessons to local bassists led to a few live shows, and soon he was again a full-time musician, although he talked of becoming a "gentleman farmer." During the late 1970s and early 1980s he helped promote jazz in Austin. Ramey died of a heart attack on December 8, 1984.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Austin American Statesman, December 8, 1989. Doug Ramsey, "Bass Hit," Texas Monthly, May 1981. Ross Russell, Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971).

Kharen Monsho

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