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Dyin' With The Blues

Alex Hill & His Orchestra

Bob Shoffner , Cecil Irwin, Darnell Howard , George James, Ikey Robinson, John Thomas , Walter Bishop

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Recorded in Chicago on December 20th 1929 featuring Bob Shoffner trumpet, John Thomas trombone, Darnell Howard clarinet & alto sax, George James alto sax, Cecil Irwin clarinet & tenor sax, Alex Hill piano & director, Ikey Robinson banjo, Buddy Gross or Quinn Wilson bass brass, and Walter Bishop drums.

*"Dyin' With The Blues" was composed and arranged by Alex Hill.

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas on April 22nd 1906, Alex Hill was a child music prodigy who learned to play the piano from his mother.

While he was attending Shorter College he met territory bandleader Alphonse Trent and took on his first job
as an arranger with his orchestra.

After graduating in 1922, Hill started touring with various bands and had made his way to California by 1926 where he was a member of "Mutt Carey's Jeffersonians" and arranged for groups including "Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders".

He settled in Chicago in late 1927 playing with the bands of Jimmy Wade and Jimmie Noone among others.

While touring with Sammy Stewart in 1930 Alex Hill relocated to New York where he would become staff arranger for the Mills Music Company writing for the "Mills Blue Rhythm Orchestra", Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, and Paul Whiteman.

Sadly in 1935 at the peak of his career the beloved entertainer fell ill with tuberculosis.

Disbanding his Orchestra at the Savoy Ballroom, Alex moved back to Little Rock, where he died sometime
during February of 1937.