Luis Russell

Luis Russell (6 August 1902 – 11 December 1963) was a jazz pianist and bandleader.

Luis Carl Russell was born on Careening Cay, near Bocas del Toro, Panama, in a family of Afro-Caribbean ancestry. His father was a music teacher, and young Luis learned to play violin, guitar, trombone, and piano. He began playing professionally accompanying silent films by 1917 and later at a casino in Colón, Panama. In 1919 he won $3000 (USD) in a lottery, and used it to move to the United States with his mother and sister, settling in New Orleans, Louisiana.

He began performing with New Orleans bands, and took lessons on New Orleans style jazz piano from Steve Lewis. He played with Albert Nicholas's band, then moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1924.

In Chicago he played with Doc Cook and King Oliver, in addition to occasional jobs under his own name and pick up bands in recording studios. With Oliver's band Russell moved to New York City in May 1927. In October of that year he left Oliver to start his own band.

By 1929, Russell's band became one of the top jazz groups in New York. It had several former Oliver sidemen. Noteworthy players in his band included trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen, trombonist J.C. Higginbotham and alto saxophonist Albert Nicholas; Louis Armstrong wound up taking over the band as front man in 1935.

The band returned to Russell's name while Armstrong played in California and Europe in the early 1930s; Russell and Armstrong were reunited in 1935. They again split paths in 1943 when Russell formed a new band under his own name, which played at the Savoy and Apollo in Manhattan as well as in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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