William 'Red' McKenzie (October 14, 1899 – February 7, 1948) was an American jazz vocalist and musician who played a comb as an instrument. He played the comb-and-paper by placing paper, sometimes strips from the Evening World, over the tines and blowing on it, producing a sound like a kazoo.
He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. While working as a bellhop in St. Louis he and some friends , including Jack Bland and Dick Slevin formed the Mound City Blue Blowers, and would get together and play on the street where they were “discovered” and taken to Chicago to record in 1924. They recorded “Arkansas Blues” and “Blue Blues“. The record sold over a million copies.
After his return to America, Red became active as a Jazz Promoter, more than as a Jazz musician. Red worked as a talent scout and set up the first Okeh Recording date for Beiderbecke, Eddie Lang and Frankie Trumbauer which featured the famous recording “Singing the Blues“.
In 1927, he promoted a Paramount Recording session at which a group of Chicagoans recorded the “Friar’s Point Shuffle”. In 1928, Okeh Records cut four sides with his group called McKenzie and Condon’s Chicagoans. In 1930 he recorded with a number of famous musician, Fats Waller, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman, Bud Freeman. Eddie Condon and Josh Billings.
Regarding his musical abilities, unique to him, McKenzie’s singing isn’t to everyone’s taste; he is earnest, declaratory, even tipping over into barroom sentimentality. But he could put over a hot number with style, and his straight-from-the shoulder delivery is both charming and a product of the late Twenties.
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| Trumbauer, McKenzie & Whiteman |
As an instrumentalist on the comb and newspaper, he had no equal, and the remarkable thing about the records on which he appears is how strongly he stands his ground with Coleman Hawkins and Bunny Berigan, powerful figures in their own right.
Both singing and playing, McKenzie reminds me greatly of Wild Bill Davison, someone who had “drama,” as Ruby Braff said.
Further Blue Blowers titles were cut during 1931 (featuring Hawkins, Jimmy Dorsey, and Muggsy Spanier) and 1935-1936 (often with Bunny Berigan). McKenzie recorded as a straight singer in 1931 with “Time on My Hands” “Just Friends” and “I’m Sorry Dear”. He was with Paul Whiteman the following year and although he never did become a major name, he did front the Spirits of Rhythm (1934) and the Farley-Riley group (1935) on record dates.
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Had he been in better health, he could have been one of those apparently ancient but still vivacious stars who appeared on the Ed Sullivan and the Hollywood Palace alongside Crosby, Sophie Tucker, Durante, and Ted Lewis . . ... but it was not to be.
(Edited from Wikipedia, Syncopated Times, Jazz Lives & AllMusic)