King Kolax (born William Little, November 6, 1912 – December 18, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader.
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| Captain Walter Dyett |
William Little was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1912; he misleadingly claimed he was born in 1918 in later years. While young his family moved to Chicago where he attended Douglas Elementary School and Wendell Phillips High School, studying under the redoubtable bandmaster Captain Walter Dyett. He completed a degree at the Chicago Conservatory of Music in the early 1930s and played in dance bands in Chicago during the decade. One of the first bands he played in as a professional was a Swing aggregation led by Les Wilcox in 1936.
By early 1937 the Les Wilcox band had morphed into the Ruth Ellington band playing at the Creole Palace, San Diego, California. Sometime later, after returning to Chicago, Kolax had taken over leadership himself and was also a regular participant in jam sessions and dances held on Thursday evenings at Warwick Hall under Union sponsorship. In 1938 the band sported some colorful titles, including the Jazz Madmaniacs. Kolax and his ensemble toured the U.S. and continued playing regularly at venues such as the Savoy Theater and the 65 Club. The band evolved somewhat, as Kolax continued to work steadily through all of 1939, when Charlie Parker played in his band.
During 1940 and 1941, King Kolax worked a number of Sunday dances at the Savoy Ballroom (47th and South Parkway).On Sunday January 12, 1941, his 15 piece band shared the bill with Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra. It appears the band then went on its second tour of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina, played the Savoy Ballroom in New York City again, and was on its way back to Chicago when it landed in Indianapolis for 10 nights at the Sunset Terrace.
Kolax's band at the Grand Terrace in 1942 retained most of the personnel from the April 1941 engagement at the Sunset Terrace.During February that year, King Kolax and his Orchestra participated in a battle of the bands at the Savoy Ballroom, but by July, Kolax seems to have disbanded his outfit and joined the Ernie Fields Orchestra. This band toured the Midwest until the fall when Kolaxwas once again touring with his own band The N.B.C. Orchestra ending in a revue called "Vampin' Babies" at the Seitz State Theater.
By 1943 Kolax formed yet another band and again toured the American south. He continued touring throughout the country and on military bases within the U.S. through 1946. In May 1946, his group broke up and Kolax joined Billy Eckstine's big band with which he made his first recordings. Eckstine's band ended before the end of the year, so Kolax organized another band late in 1946, which lasted until May 1947; John Coltrane was a member of this ensemble. After the demise of his band, Kolax returned to Chicago to play in small groups.
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| L-R: Lupita Peruyero, Joe Louis, Norman Schlossberg, Sarah Vaughan King Kodax and Mitzi Mars. 1952. |
Kolax made regular engagements at hotels and ballrooms throughout the 1950s in Chicago and elsewhere; he had a working relationship with Sun Ra, who wrote arrangements for him.
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| Kolax with Al Hibbler |
In the second half of the decade Kolax recorded with Earl Pugh, Brooks & Brown, Clyde Williams, and Harvey Ellington; in the early 1960s records followed with Wilbur White, The Chanteurs, Jerry Butler, McKinley Mitchell, Otis Rush, and The Vondells.
Kolax became an A&R representative for Marvello Records, owned by the Chicago businessman James P. Johnson, between 1961 and 1965. Sporadic recording followed later in the 1960s both as a leader and behind Willie Mabon, Brother Jack McDuff, Gene Ammons, and Roosevelt Sykes, whose August 1970 recording session was Kolax's last.
Kolax had a position in the Chicago Federation of Musicians, and union rules prevented him from performing and holding office simultaneously. He retired around 1981 and died December 18, 1991 (aged 79) in Chicago ten years later after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for an extended period.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Robert
Campbell’s King Kolax discography)
Here’s great gem from a 1970 TV broadcast from WTTW - Chicago PBS. This is the only known TV appearance of Gene "Jug" Ammons. This broadcast was produced by National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Dan Morgenstern, and was discovered among over 60 boxes of Morgenstern’s memorabilia at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. George Freeman is on guitar with King Kolax on trumpet, Wallace Burton on piano, Chester Williamson on bass, and Bob Guthrie on drums.