(April 3rd 1903 - May 20th 1932)

James Wesley "Bubber" Miley was born in Aiken, South Carolina in 1903 moving with his family to New York City at the age of six. As a boy he sang for money in the streets before learning to play trombone and cornet during his early teens. After an eighteen month stint serving in the Navy, James joined a jazz group called the "Carolina Five" in 1920 performing at small clubs in and around the New York area. Following a brief Southern tour with a vaudeville show titled "The Sunny South", Miley joined "Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds" as a replacement for Johnny Dunn. Inspired by the mute trumpet work of Joe "King" Oliver while playing in Chicago he too would adopt the practice. Bubber Miley's talent and uniquely original muted trumpet style came to the attention of prominent New York City bandleader Duke Ellington who hired him in 1923. He left Ellington in 1929 and went on to work and appear on record with a variety of artists including Noble Sissle, Jelly Roll Morton, Hoagy Carmichael, Zutty Singleton, and Leo Reisman. Already suffering with poor health due to alcoholism Bubber Miley died of tuberculosis on May 20th 1932 on Roosevelt Island, in New York City.