Booker T. Washington

Washington is the name of a capital, a state, and also the surname of many dozens of jazz musicians, from Al Washington right down to Walter "Wolfman" Washington. While a fair amount of confusion exists over credits attributed to the former name, perhaps the ultra state of Washingtonian chaos regards the name of Booker T. Washington. Significant controversy regards the middle initial, with John Chilton insisting the Kansas City jazz trumpeter was Booker T. Washington while Tom Lord identifies him in the tealess form of Booker Washington. A drummer based out of Chicago, in most cases identified with the initial, is a different person entirely despite the efforts of some discographers to establish percussion as a secondary instrument of the aforementioned brassman. While it certainly may have been likely that the Kansas City Booker T. Washington -- or Booker Washington according to Lord -- may have played some drums, he is not the Booker T. Washington whose classic jazz recording credits in the Windy City began roughly around the same time as the brassman about whom the ultimate question seems to be "To 'T' or not to 'T'?" The drummer's history of recordings is about a decade and a half shorter than the brassman's and is fairly well documented on either end. Various roots rock and rhythm and blues compilations as well as historic jazz volumes chronicle Washington's timekeeping on the Memphis music scene of the late '20s in the company of pianist Memphis Slim, among others. In his later years, Washington held forth in the rhythm sections of Albert Wynn & His Gutbucket Seven as well as the orchestra of Lil Hardin Armstrong for superb recordings arranged by the Riverside label. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi