Lucky Millinder

Lucky Millinder was essentially a frontman, an intermittent singer who conducted many amazing big bands. Millinder was raised in Chicago, worked well like a dancer, and became a bandleader in 1931, using his initial name of Lucius Venable, which he quickly transformed. He freelanced until 1934 when he required over leadership from the Mills Blue Tempo Band, remaining into 1938. In 1940, he created his personal orchestra, which worked well in the Savoy Ballroom. Perhaps most obviously among his sidemen was his celebrity attraction, vocalist/guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe, pianist Expenses Doggett, and, for a short amount of time in 1942, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and altoist Tabs Smith. Millinder fronted rings on record from 1940-1952 and on a final program in 1955; the later on recordings tended to become more R&B-oriented, although still appealing from a jazz standpoint. A Classics Compact disc has most of Millinder’s 1940-1942 classes. Lucky Millinder spent his old age like a liquor salesman along with a disk jockey.