Artist: Oscar Moore


Oscar Frederic Moore was an American jazz  guitarist with the Nat King Cole Trio

Moore was born in Austin, Texas, United States. The Moore family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he began performing with his older brother Johnny, who played both trombone and guitar. After moving to Los Angeles, he participated in his first recording session for Decca as part of the Jones Boys Sing Band led and arranged by Leon René. The group attracted local attention on radio and in two short films for MGM  directed by Buster Keaton. Soon after, Moore accompanied pianist Nat King Cole at the Swanee Inn in North La Brea, Hollywood. He spent ten years with Cole in the piano-guitar-bass trio format, that influenced Art TatumOscar PetersonAhmad Jamal

Moore placed or topped polls in DownBeat,  Metronome, and Esquire magazines from 1943 through 1948. Art Tatum professed his admiration for Moore in a 1944 magazine interview. 

After he left the King Cole Trio in October 1947, he joined his brother in Johnny Moore's Three Blazers as a member of that group into the early 1950s. Moore formed his own trio in 1952 and was active in Los Angeles. He recorded sessions as a leader and as a sideman throughout the 1950s but left the industry at the end of the decade. He returned to the recording studio in 1965 to record a tribute to Cole and again in the 1970s, briefly backing Helen Humes.  

Further information about Oscar Moore is found here and here.

Photography credit: William P. Gottlieb, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This content was excerpted from the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Moore, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).

Oscar Moore With Inez Jones, Carl Perkins And Other Jazz Stars

Presenting Oscar Moore (Full Album)

Oscar Moore: Videos

The Oscar Moore Quartet - Moonlight in Vermont (Original)