Vassar Clements
| Vassar Clements | |
|---|---|
Vassar during a documentary interview in 2004, Live Oak, Florida
Court |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Vassar Carlton Clements |
| Born | April 25, 1928 |
| Origin | Kinard, Florida |
| Died | August 16, 2005 (aged 77) |
| Genres | Bluegrass, country |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Fiddle, viola, cello, double bass, mandolin, tenor banjo, guitar |
| Associated acts | Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, Jim and Jesse, Earl Scruggs, John Hartford, Norman Blake, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Old and in the Way, Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead, many others |
Vassar Carlton Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was a Grammy Award-winning American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical traditions.
Clements was born in Kinard, Florida, but grew up in Kissimmee, Florida. He taught himself to play the fiddle at age 7 and the first song he learned was "There's an Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor". Soon, Clements formed a local string band with two first cousins, Red and Gerald. Gerald was the fiddle player and when he got married and left, Clements had to pick up the fiddle. In his early teens, he met Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys when they came to Florida to visit Clements' stepfather who knew Chubby Wise. Clements heard Wise play and was impressed.
In late 1949, when Wise left Monroe's group, Clements, who was then only 21, travelled by bus to ask for an audition. When told he would have to return the next day, Clements was crestfallen because he didn't have any money for a hotel room or even for a return bus trip. Monroe gave him some money to a night's lodging, and the next day Clements auditioned and was hired as Wise's replacement in the Blue Grass Boys. He remained with Monroe for seven years. During this period he recorded with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys in 1950 and 1951. Vassar Clements soon became one of the most distinctive, inventive, and popular fiddlers in bluegrass music. His virtuosity and ability to blend several different genres, including swing and hot jazz, into his style made him a pioneer in country music and much sought-after session musician.
He didn't always earn his living playing music. In the mid-1960s he struggled with, and recuperated from alcohol. During this period he made his living employed briefly at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where he worked on plumbing. He also performed several other blue-collar jobs including work in a Georgia paper mill, as switchman for Atlantic Coast Line Railroad; he even sold insurance and once operated a convenience store while owning a potato chip franchise in Huntsville, Alabama.
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