Charles Edward "Charlie" Dixon (December 31, 1898, Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...

 - December 6, 1940, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

) was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 banjoist.

Dixon played in local ensembles in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 and New York before becoming a member of Sam Wooding

Sam Wooding

Sam Wooding was an expatriate American jazz pianist, arranger and bandleader living and performing in Europe and the United States.Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he led several big bands in the United States and abroad...

's orchestra in 1922. In 1923 he joined up with Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Henderson

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...

, playing and writing arrangements for him until 1928 and continuing to write charts for Henderson after his departure. He played with Henderson in both small and big band formats, and recorded in Henderson's pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

ous groups like the Dixie Stompers. Among the musicians he played with while under Wooding and Henderson were Kaiser Marshall

Kaiser Marshall

Joseph "Kaiser" Marshall was an American jazz drummer.Marshall was raised in Boston, where he studied under George L. Stone. He played with Charlie Dixon before moving to New York City early in the 1920s...

, Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

, Ralph Escudero

Ralph Escudero

Rafael "Ralph" Escudero was a bassist and tubist active on the early American jazz scene....

, Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...

, Don Redman

Don Redman

Donald Matthew Redman was an American jazz musician, arranger, bandleader and composer.Redman was announced as a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame on May 6, 2009....

, and Elmer Chambers

Elmer Chambers

Dallas Elmer Chambers, also called Frog and Muffle Jaws Chambers was an American jazz trumpeter....

. He also played in small ensembles accompanying singers such as Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...

, Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues....

, Trixie Smith

Trixie Smith

Trixie Smith was an African American blues singer, recording artist, vaudeville entertainer, and actress. She made four dozen recordings.-Biography:...

, and Alberta Hunter

Alberta Hunter

Alberta Hunter was an American blues singer, songwriter, and nurse. Her career had started back in the early 1920s, and from there on, she became a successful jazz and blues recording artist, being critically acclaimed to the ranks of Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith...

 in the 1920s.

In the 1930s, he led a band which accompanied dancer Cora LaRedd, and arranged and composed for Chick Webb

Chick Webb

William Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.-Biography:...

. Unlike most of the banjoists of his era, he never switched to guitar, and his banjo work is often difficult to hear on record.