Frank Adams on Trumpeter Joe Guy

Frank Adams on Trumpeter Joe Guy

In this excerpt, Frank Adams shares memories of trumpeter Joe Guy. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Birmingham-born Guy performed in the bands of Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, Coleman Hawkins, Cootie Williams, and others—as well as in the original house band at Minton’s Playhouse, the iconic New York jazz club. He would also become Billie Holiday’s romantic and musical partner, but he returned to Birmingham in 1947 when he and Holiday were arrested for possession of narcotics. (Holiday was sentenced to a year and a day in a federal prison; Guy was acquitted but returned home for good, his career finished.) Back in Birmingham, Guy became a member of Adams’s band, which played weekly at the Woodland Club, a “honkytonk” on the outskirts of town. Revered by many local players, he would struggle with addiction until his death in 1962.

This interview was conducted by Burgin Mathews on September 12, 2009, at Frank Adams’s office in the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

2009-09-12

Birmingham (Ala.)

Cassette tape

Audio

7:09