Chu Berry First to Set Sax Free – Phantom Dancer

Chu Berry first played alto sax as a teenager. He was inspired at 20 to take up tenor saxophone after hearing Coleman Hawkins on tour.

Most of Berry’s career was spent with swing bands: Sammy Stewart, 1929–1930, with whom he switched to tenor sax; Benny Carter, 1932–1933; Teddy Hill, 1933–1935; Fletcher Henderson, 1935–1937; and Cab Calloway, his best-known affiliation, from 1937 to 1941.

Throughout his brief career, Berry was in demand as a sideman for recording sessions under the names of various other jazz artists, including Spike Hughes (1933), Bessie Smith (1933), the Chocolate Dandies (1933), Mildred Bailey (1935–1938), Teddy Wilson (1935–1938), Billie Holiday (1938–1939), Wingy Manone (1938–1939), and Lionel Hampton (1939).

During the period 1934–1939, while saxophone pioneer Hawkins was playing in Europe, Berry was one of several younger tenor saxophonists, such as Budd Johnson, Ben Webster, and Lester Young, who vied for supremacy on their instrument.

Berry’s mastery of advanced harmony was an influence on Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Parker named his first son Leon in Chu’s honour.

Berry was among the musicians who took part in the jam sessions at Minton’s Playhouse in New York City, which lead to the development of bebop.

The song “Christopher Columbus” (1936), which Berry composed with lyrics by Andy Razaf, was the last important hit recording of the Fletcher Henderson orchestra.

It is one of the most popular riff tunes from the swing era and was later incorporated into Jimmy Mundy’s arrangement of “Sing, Sing, Sing” for Benny Goodman’s band.

Four sessions were organised with Berry as leader, in 1937, 1938, and 1941.

He was killed in a car accident in 1941.

According to a 1941 article published in the Afro-American (Baltimore), “Cab (Calloway) received news of Berry’s death while playing before 5,000 people in Toronto, Canada, where the band was en route when the accident occurred. He worked four hours without letting the band know of Chu’s death. He stopped the band twenty minutes before the close of the engagement and made the announcement, after which the band played God Save the King (then the Canadian national anthem).” Calloway flew to Wheeling WV (Chu’s birthplace) for the funeral where over a thousand people were in attendance.