Lunceford, Jimmie

Lunceford, Jimmie

 orig. James Melvin Lunceford

(born June 6, 1902, Fulton, Miss., U.S.—died July 12, 1947, Seaside, Ore.) U.S. jazz musician and bandleader. Lunceford was a well-schooled musician who played saxophone and taught music before forming a band in 1929. Trumpeter and arranger Sy Oliver (1910–88) joined in 1933, bringing a crisp ensemble sound to the two-beat rhythmic approach of the band. Lunceford's band gained national attention after he succeeded Cab Calloway at Harlem's Cotton Club in 1934, and it was thereafter counted among the finest big bands of the swing era, rivaling those of Duke Ellington and Count Basie in popularity.

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Lunceford, (James Melvin) Jimmie (1902–47) jazz musician; born in Fulton, Mo. He was a music teacher in Memphis who formed a band in 1929 and gradually developed it into an outstanding Swing era orchestra.