Big Chief Moore

Big Chief Russell Moore (August 13, 1912 – December 15, 1983) was an American jazz trombonist.

Moore was a Pima American Indian, and lived in Blue Island, Illinois from age twelve, where he studied trumpet, piano, drums, French horn, and trombone. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1930s, where he worked freelance with Lionel Hampton (1935), Eddie Barefield, and others. After moving to New Orleans in 1939, he worked with Oscar Celestin, Kid Rena, A.J. Piron, Paul Barbarin, Ernie Fields, Harlan Leonard, and Noble Sissle.

He played with Louis Armstrong's last big band in 1944–47, and worked freelance on the Dixieland jazz circuit thereafter. In the 1950s he played with Ruby Braff, Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Condon, Wild Bill Davison, Jimmy McPartland, Tony Parenti, Mezz Mezzrow, Sidney Bechet, and Buck Clayton. He returned to play in the Louis Armstrong All-Stars in 1964–65, but fell ill and had to leave the group. After recovering he led a Dixieland group of his own, which toured Canada repeatedly.