Walter Page
| Walter Page | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Walter Sylvester Page |
| Born |
February 9, 1900 Gallatin, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | December 20, 1957 (aged 57) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, swing, Kansas City jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, bandleader |
| Instruments | Double bass, tuba, baritone saxophone |
| Associated acts | Bennie Moten, Count Basie, Oran 'Hot Lips' Page, Oklahoma City Blue Devils |
Walter Sylvester Page (February 9, 1900 – December 20, 1957) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist and bandleader, best known for his groundbreaking work as a double bass player with Walter Page's Blue Devils and the Count Basie Orchestra.
Page was born in Gallatin, Missouri on February 9, 1900 to parents Edward and Blanche Page. Page showed a love for music even as a child, perhaps due in part to the influence of his aunt Lillie, a music teacher. Page's mother, with whom he moved to Kansas City in 1910, exposed him to folksongs and spirituals, a critical foundation for developing his love of music. He gained his first musical experience as a bass drum and bass horn player in the brass bands of his neighborhood. Under the direction of Major N. Clark Smith, a retired military bandleader who provided Page his first formal training in music, Page took up the string bass in his time at Lincoln High School. In an interview in The Jazz Review, Page remembers Major Smith:
Major N. Clark Smith was my teacher in high school. He taught almost everybody in Kansas City. He was a chubby little cat, bald, one of the old military men. He wore glasses on his nose and came from Cuba around 1912 or 1914. He knew all the instruments and couldn’t play anything himself, but he could teach. ...[One day he was looking for a bass player and no one was around, so he looked at me, and said, "Pagey, get the bass." I said, "But," and he repeated, "Get the bass." That's when I got started.
In addition to the influence of Smith, Walter Page also drew inspiration from bassist Wellman Braud, who Page had the opportunity to see when he came to town with a band under the direction of John Wycliffe. "I was sitting right in the front row of the high school auditorium", recalled Page, "and all I could hear was the oomp, oomp, oomp of that bass, and I said, that's for me." What attracted Page to Braud was Braud's intensity. "When Braud got ahold of that bass, he hit those tones like hammers and made them jump right out of the box."
After Page had completed high school, he went on to study to become a music teacher at the University of Kansas at Lawrence. At college, Page completed a three-year course in music in one year, in addition to taking a three-year course on gas engines. Between the years 1918 and 1923, he moonlighted as a tuba, bass saxophone, and string bass player with the Bennie Moten Orchestra. "Fridays and Sundays I played with Bennie Moten and Saturdays with Dave Lewis who was paying me $7.00 a night. Bennie was paying for my food and transportation, so when I'd be finished a weekend [sic] I'd made me $20.00 and had a ball."
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