Boyd Senter was a multi-instrumentalist and band leader, most commonly associated with his jazz-era clarinet playing. He helped start the careers of Glenn Miller and The Dorsey Brothers. As a vaudeville performer, he headlined with his jazz band and as a solo performer, having mastered several instruments. His later years involved non-musical employment, but he remained active in the local music scene.

Biography

Senter was born in Lyons, Nebraska on November 30, 1899.[1] His mother's name was Idella.[2] He began learning the violin before he was old enough to go to school.[2] He next learned the cornet, his mother claiming he learned it in "one lesson."[2] A visiting carnival's bandleader took sick when Senter was twelve, and the youth was hired to lead the band in replacement.[2] He attended Omaha Central High School.[2] By the age of seventeen he was playing for pay in theatre accompanyment groups.[1] Upon hearing recordings of The Original Dixieland Jazz Band he decided he wanted to become a professional musician.[3]

He spent 1921 through 1922 leading his own band in Atlantic City.[1] He then went on tour through the midwest, travelling as far as Colorado.[4] This group gave Glenn Miller his start when he auditioned for them in 1922 at the age of 17.[4] Quitting that, he joined the Chicago Deluxe Orchestra in 1923.[1] In 1924 he was promoted as a "Jazzologist Supreme" and performed theatre dates where he performed solo on a wide variety of instruments.[5] In the mid-20s he also went back to fronting his own "Senterpede" bands for the rest of the 1920s, recording for Okeh Records, Paramount Records, and Victor Records.[1][6] Bandmembers included Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti.[7] About this time he married singer Edna Pierrou.[2] He joined a 1927 touring theater production of "S. S. Syncopation" with a band christened the Riviera Jazz Jesters instead of Senterpedes.[8] In the 1930s he directed the orchestra at Detroit's Colonial Theatre and headlined at variety Vaudeville shows, sometimes serving as master of ceremonies.[1][9][10]

During World War Two he owned a factory which was contracted to the U.S. government doing defense work.[11] Following the war he started another band in Detroit. He spent the 1950s and 1960s in Mio, Michigan running a bait-and-tackle shop named "Boyd's Sports Senter" while continuing to lead his Detroit band on weekends and continuing his "one man band" theater performances with less frequency as time progressed.[1][6][11][12] During this period he also operated a traveling band instrument repair service.[12]

Boyd Senter died in Oscoda, Michigan June, 1982.[3]

Style

A 1926 newspaper review called his theater performance "steaming music of the approved variety," noting his "wicked variations" on "St. Louis Blues".[13] Variety in 1929 described Senter's version "In the Jailhouse Now" as "sizzling blues".[14] Billboard reviewed a 1942 show by Senter as a mixture of entertainment and music that had "..the crowd stomping..." in an audience consisting of a high proportion of juveniles.[15] His vaudeville performances were sometimes with his band, and sometimes as a solo act, often accompanied by Jack Russell.[16][17]

Although most closely associated with the clarinet and saxophone, he also mastered the banjo, cornet, piano, trombone and violin in addition to several others.[17][18][19][20] The clarinet playing that made him internationally famous was, according to Brian Rust, clowning, and diminished his reputational posterity among jazz aficionados.[3] However, Rust considered Senter a performer with genuine jazz capabilities.[3] In addition to Glenn Miller, Senter was instrumental in the beginnings of The Dorsey Brothers careers.[21]

Recording career

Senter first recorded for Autograph Records, making some of the earliest electrical recordings.[3][21] These masters were released on Paramount Records, Pathé Records and Perfect Records.[3] In 1927 he transferred to Okeh Records where he made some of his best-known recordings, including a drunken performance unreleased in America but which received distribution in Europe.[3] Two years later he signed with Victor Records and made five sessions with them.[3]

Senter appears as a sideman on recordings by The California Ramblers, Jelly Roll Morton, and Jimmie Rodgers.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lee, William F. (2005). American Big Bands. Hal Leonard. p. 79. ISBN 9780634080548.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 O'Dare, Bobby (April 3, 1927). "Sax King Back to Face Critics Who Said 'Sit!'". The Omaha Morning Bee. p. 6-B – via newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rust, Brian. "Boyd Senter". Red Hot Jazz. Archived from the original on 10 August 2019. Retrieved August 10, 2019 – via Wayback Machine.
  4. 1 2 Glackin, William C. (March 13, 1954). "A Memoir of Glenn Miller". The Sacramento Bee. p. 6 – via newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Boyd Senter Termed Jazzologist Supreme". The Evening News. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. September 19, 1924. p. 14 – via newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 Callaghan, J. Dorsey (February 21, 1960). "One-Man Symphony". Detroit Free Press. p. 3-E.
  7. ↑ Levinson, Peter J. (March 2009). Tommy Dorsey: Livin' in a Great Big Way, A Biography. Hachette Books. p. 31. ISBN 9780786734948.
  8. ↑ "The New Idea Publix stage show." Fort Calhoun Chronicle. Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. July 14, 1927. p. 4 – via newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Boyd Senter Tops San Diego's Show". Detroit Free Press. May 21, 1938. p. 17 – via newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Boyd Senter Heads Colonial Stage Bill". Detroit Free Press. January 19, 1936. p. 12 – via newspapers.com.
  11. 1 2 3 Kinkle, Roger D. (1974). The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz 1900-1950. Vol. 3. Westport, Connecticut: Arlington House. p. 1730. ISBN 0-87000-229-5.
  12. 1 2 Stoddard, Berneice (June 16, 1957). "Old Dance Band Directors Don't Just Fade Away, Either". Battle Creek Enquirer. p. 3-1 – via newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "In the Theaters: Boyd Senter Livens Things Up At Strand Theater First Half". Lansing State Journal. November 29, 1926. p. 2 – via newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Porterfield, Nolan (2007). Jimmie Rodgers: The Life and Times of America's Blue Yodeler. University Press of Mississippi. p. 138. ISBN 9781604731606.
  15. ↑ "Mel Theatre, Detroit". Billboard. September 5, 1942. p. 17.
  16. ↑ "Boyd Senter Holds Over on Bill at Strand Theatre for Last Half". Lansing State Journal. December 1, 1926. p. 17 – via newspapers.com.
  17. 1 2 "Boyd Senter Plays at World Next Week". The Omaha Daily News. September 7, 1923. p. 8 – via newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ "The Stage". The Evening Journal. Wilmington, Delaware. September 8, 1924. p. 9 – via newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ "Senter at Kenkel's". The Journal Herald. Dayton, OH. April 26, 1960. p. 20 – via newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "One-Man Orchestra of R.K.O. Entertains Oakdale Patients". The Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. July 24, 1931. p. 7 – via newspapers.com.
  21. 1 2 DePasquale, Ron. "Boyd Senter". AllMusic. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
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