Paul Bascomb

Paul Bascomb

Best known for his work with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, tenor saxophonist Paul Bascomb (1912-1986) performed throughout his career with his own bands as well as with the C. S. Belton Orchestra, a popular southern territory band, and with the Count Basie Orchestra. In 1929, as a student at Alabama State Teachers College, Bascomb founded the Bama State Collegians, the group which would become famous as the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. Bascomb's powerful tenor sax style would be an important precursor to the "honking" and "screaming" saxophonists of 1940s and '50s rhythm and blues and early rock and roll.

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