Matty Matlock
American Dixieland jazz clarinetist and saxophonist (1907–1978)
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Julian Clifton "Matty" Matlock (April 27, 1907 – June 14, 1978) was an American Dixieland jazz clarinettist, saxophonist and arranger.
Matty Matlock | |
|---|---|
Ray Bauduc, Herschel Evans, Bob Haggard, Eddie Miller, Lester Young, Matty Matlock, Howard Theatre, Washington D.C., ca. 1941. | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Julian Clifton Matlock April 27, 1907 |
| Origin |  Paducah, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | June 14, 1978 (aged 71) |
| Genres | Dixieland Swing |
| Instruments | Saxophone Clarinet |
| Years active | 1950s – 1970s |
Early years
Matlock was born in Paducah, Kentucky, April 27, 1907, and raised in Nashville beginning in 1917. He began playing clarinet when he was 12.[1]
Career
From 1929 to 1934, Matlock replaced Benny Goodman in the Ben Pollack band doing arrangements and performing on clarinet.[2]
Matlock was one of the main arrangers for Bob Crosby's band.[3] He had joined Crosby's group in 1935 as clarinettist, playing with both the main Crosby band and the smaller Bobcats group,[4] but "he was often seconded to write full-time for the orchestra and the Bobcats."[2] He stayed with Crosby until the band broke up in 1942.[2] Matlock's entry in The Rough Guide to Jazz says of him (in part): "Matty Matlock was, with Irving Fazola, the most inspired and spontaneous clarinettist in the Dixieland style, and as a truly original arranger he perfected the sound of 'arranged white Dixieland' as we know it today."[2]
After the dissolution of Crosby's group, Matlock worked in Los Angeles, playing for recordings made by a variety of Dixieland groups.[1] In 1955, he appeared in the film Pete Kelly's Blues, playing clarinet for a band that is seen in a scene in a Kansas City speakeasy in 1927.[5]
Death
Matlock died June 14, 1978, in Los Angeles, California.[6]
Select discography
- As bandleader
- Dixieland (Douglass Phonodisc)
- Four-Button Dixie (Douglass Phonodisc, 1959) [credited as Matty Matlock and the Paducah Patrol]
- They Made It Twice As Nice As Paradise And They Called It Dixieland (Douglass Phonodisc)
- With Bing Crosby
- Play a Simple Melody / Sam's Song (also with Gary Crosby) (Decca Records)
- Moonlight Bay (also with Gary Crosby) (Decca Records)
- In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening (also with Jane Wyman) (Decca Records)
- Bing with a Beat (RCA Records)
- With Ella Fitzgerald
- With Ray Heindorf
- Pete Kelly's Blues (Columbia Records)
- With Ben Pollack
- Ben Pollack's Pick-A-Rib Boys: Dixieland (Savoy Records)
- Dixieland Vols. 1, 2 & 3 (Savoy Records)
- With Beverly Jenkins
- Gordon Jenkins Presents My Wife The Blues Singer (Impulse!)