Artist: Boyd Senter

Boyd Senter was a multi-instrumentalist and band leader, most commonly associated with his jazz-era clarinet playing. He helped start the careers of Glenn Miller and The Dorsey Brothers. As a vaudeville performer, he headlined with his jazz band and as a solo performer, having mastered several instruments. His later years involved non-musical employment, but he remained active in the local music scene.

He spent 1921 through 1922 leading his own band in Atlantic City. He then went on tour through the midwest, travelling as far as Colorado. This group gave Glenn Miller his start when he auditioned for them in 1922 at the age of 17. Quitting that, he joined the Chicago Deluxe Orchestra in 1923. In 1924 he was promoted as a "Jazzologist Supreme" and performed theatre dates where he performed solo on a wide variety of instruments.

In the mid-20s he also went back to fronting his own "Senterpede" bands for the rest of the 1920s, recording for Okeh Records, Paramount Records, and Victor Records. Bandmembers included Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti. About this time he married singer Edna Pierrou. He joined a 1927 touring theater production of "S. S. Syncopation" with a band christened the Riviera Jazz Jesters instead of Senterpedes. In the 1930s he directed the orchestra at Detroit's Colonial Theatre and headlined at variety Vaudeville shows, sometimes serving as master of ceremonies.