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American jazz trombonist (1907–1979) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Walter Gerhardt "Pee Wee" Hunt (May 10, 1907 – June 22, 1979)[1] was an American jazz trombonist, vocalist, and bandleader.[2] Hunt was born in Mount Healthy, Ohio.[3] He developed a musical interest at an early age, as his mother, Sadie, played the banjo and his father, Edgar C., played violin.[1] He had a younger sister, Marian, and younger brother, Raymond. The teenage Hunt was a banjoist with a local band while he was attending college at Ohio State University,[1] where he majored in Electrical Engineering,[4] and during his college years he switched from banjo to trombone.[1] He graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.[4] He joined Jean Goldkette's Orchestra in 1928.[4]
Pee Wee Hunt | |
|---|---|
Hunt in 1941 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Walter Gerhardt Hunt |
| Born | May 10, 1907 Mount Healthy, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | June 22, 1979 (aged 72) Plymouth, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Trombonist, vocalist, bandleader |
| Instrument | Trombone |
Hunt was the co-founder and featured trombonist with the Casa Loma Orchestra,[1] but he left the group in 1943 to work as a Hollywood radio disc jockey, before joining the Merchant Marine near the end of World War II.[4] He returned to the West Coast music scene in 1946.[1] His "Twelfth Street Rag" was a three-million-selling[2] number-one hit in September 1948.[3] He was satirized as Pee Wee Runt and his All-Flea Dixieland Band in Tex Avery's animated MGM cartoon Dixieland Droopy (1954). His second major hit was "Oh!" (1953), his second million-selling disc, which reached number three in the Billboard chart.[5]
At age 72, Hunt died after a long illness in Plymouth, Massachusetts.[1] Hunt and his wife, Ruth, had a daughter, Holly, and a son, Lawrence.
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