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Bob Dunn

 
Artist: Bob Dunn
  • Born: February 08, 1908, The Netherlands
  • Died: May 27, 1971, Houston, TX
  • Active: '30s, '40s, '50s
  • Genres: Country
  • Instrument: Guitar (Steel)

Biography

Bob Dunn is an icon of Western swing music. Dunn joined Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies in 1934. He electrified his guitar with a homemade pickup in 1935 and electrified Southwestern audiences forthwith. He had a brassy sound and used his guitar as a lead, not a chorus instrument. When Milton Brown's band broke up after his death, Dunn served time with Roy Newman and His Boys, Cliff Bruner and His Texas Wanderers and the Hi-Flyers. He formed Bob Dunn's Vagabonds with Leo Raley on electric mandolin, Mancel Tierney on piano, former Blue Ridge Playboy Russell "Hezzie" Bryant on bass and Fritz Kehm on drums. He kept himself busy with session work until the '50s. ~ Megan Lynch, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Bob Dunn (musician)
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Bob Dunn
Birth name Robert Lee Dunn
Born February 5, 1908(1908-02-05)[1]
Braggs, Oklahoma, U.S.
Died May 27, 1971 (aged 63)
Houston, Texas, U.S.
Genre(s) Western swing - Jazz
Occupation(s) Musician
Instrument(s) Steel guitar, Trombone
Years active 1930s-1940s
Associated acts Panhandle Cowboys and Indians - Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies - Cliff Bruner's Texas Wanderers - Bill Mounce and the Sons of the South

Robert Lee "Bob" Dunn (February 5, 1908 - May 27, 1971) was a jazz trombonist and a pioneer Western swing steel guitarist.[2]

He is noted as the first musician to record an electrically amplified instrument—January, 1935, with Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies.[3]

Dunn was elected to the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1992.

References

  1. ^ Ginell, Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing, p: 108: "Robert Lee Dunn was born near the town of Braggs, Oklahoma on February 5, 1908." NOTE: Birth date confirmed by Social Security Death Index.
  2. ^ DeCurtis, Present Tense, p. 17-18: In San Antonio Rose, his exhaustive study of life and music of western-swing kingpin Bob wills and his Texas Playboys, Charles Townshend [sic] offers fragmentary but suggestive evidence that T-Bone Walker and Charlie Christian, the front-runners in the first generation of black electric guitarists, were inspired, at least in part, by the early amplified playing of white musicians such as Dunn and McAuliffe. ... Western-swing and jazz present a similar continuum on the white side of the tracks, with men like McAuliffe a jazzy but heavily country-inflected style, while mavericks like Dunn played a kind of pure, futuristic jazz all their own. And every one of these player, black and white, was solidly grounded in the blues."
  3. ^ Oliphant, "Texas Jazz", p. 23: "Prior to Durham's first recorded performance, Bob Dunn had recorded with the Texas Western Swing unit of Milton Brown and His Music Brownies on January 27 and 28, 1935. On this date, dunn played an amplified steel guitar, which primarily was utilized for Hawaiian music."

Bibliography

  • DeCurtis, Anthony. Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture. Duke University Press, 1992) ISBN 0-8223-1265-4
  • Ginell, Cary. Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1994. ISBN 0-252-02041-3
  • Oliphant, Dave. "Texas Jazz: 1920-50". The Roots of Texas Music edited by Lawrence Clayton, Joe W. Specht, pp. 37–65. Texas A&M University Press, 2005. ISBN 1-58544-492-8

External links



 
 
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