Artist: Eddie Barefield

Edward Emanuel Barefield was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and arranger most noteworthy for his work with Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Duke Ellington.

Barefield was born in Scandia, Iowa. He started playing throughout the Midwest, and gained his first major big-band experience with the Bennie Moten orchestra of 1932 (which later metamorphosed into the Count Basie Orchestra). This opportunity led to work with Zach Whyte's band. When he was 24, he was offered a position in Cab Calloway's orchestra in 1933. Barefield arranged and wrote music for Calloway for over 40 years. Barfield conducted the orchestra for Ella Fitzgerald after Chick Webb died in 1939. In addition, Barefield performed with McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Les Hite, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, and Benny Carter.

After the era of big bands ended, Barefield continued to work by conducting shows, free-lancing, and playing in Europe at the jazz festival in Nice. Barefield was the musical director for the original Broadway production of Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. He spent a decade in the band of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and composed and arranged for Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, and Jimmy Dorsey. Later in his life, Barefield worked with the Illinois Jacquet big band.

Barefield also appeared in films, including Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho (1934), Al Jolson's The Singing Kid (1936), Every Day's a Holiday (1937), and The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968).

Photography credit: The Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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