Floyd O'Brien 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...

 trombonist.

O'Brien first played in Chicago in the 1920s with the Austin High School Gang

Austin High School Gang

The Austin High Gang was the name given to a young group of young, white musicians from the west side of Chicago, near Austin High School, who rose to prominence as originators of the Chicago style of jazz in the 1920s.The members of the Austin High Gang were:...

; later in the decade he played with Earl Fuller

Earl Fuller

Earl Fuller was an American society dance band leader, drummer and pianist.His group "Earl Fuller's Rector Novelty Orchestra" was a regular feature at Rector's restaurant in New York City. Their records were released on Victor Records, Columbia Records, Emerson Records and Edison Records and sold...

, Floyd Town, Charles Pierce

Charles Pierce

Charles Pierce was one of the 20th century's foremost female impersonators, particularly noted for his impersonation of Bette Davis....

, Thelma Terry

Thelma Terry

Thelma Terry, née Thelma Combes was an American bandleader and bassist during the 1920s and 1930s. She fronted Thelma Terry and Her Playboys and was the first American woman to lead a notable jazz orchestra as an instrumentalist.-Early life:Terry was born in Bangor, Michigan in 1901...

, and Husk O'Hare. Between 1930-31 he worked in a pit band at a theater in Des Moines, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

. He moved to 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...

 and played with Mal Hallett

Mal Hallett

Mal Hallett was an American jazz violinist and bandleader.Hallett was a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music. He played in France during World War I as a member of Al Moore's orchestra, and led his own band, primarily in New England, for much of the 1930s...

, Joe Venuti, Smith Ballew

Smith Ballew

Smith Ballew was an American actor, sophisticated singer, orchestra leader, and finally, a Western singing star....

, Mike Durso (1933-34), Phil Harris

Phil Harris

Harris and Faye married in 1941; it was a second marriage for both and lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a fistfight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens; the cause was reported to be over Faye after Stevens and Faye had ended a romantic...

 (1935-39), Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...

 (1939-40), and Bob Crosby

Bob Crosby

George Robert "Bob" Crosby was an American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group the Bob-Cats.-Family:...

 (1940-42).

In 1943 he relocated to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 and played with Eddie Miller

Eddie Miller (jazz saxophonist)

Edward Raymond Müller was a jazz musician who played tenor saxophone and clarinet born in New Orleans, Louisiana....

, Bunk Johnson

Bunk Johnson

Willie Gary "Bunk" Johnson was a prominent early New Orleans jazz trumpet player in the early years of the 20th century who enjoyed a revived career in the 1940s....

, Shorty Sherock

Shorty Sherock

Clarence "Shorty" Sherock was a prominent swing jazz trumpeter.Sherock attended the Illinois Military Academy before becoming a soloist with Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra and later with Gene Krupa's Orchestra, together with saxophonist Sam Donahue.He was a featured soloist at the first concert of...

, Jack Teagarden

Jack Teagarden

Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden , known as "Big T" and "The Swingin' Gate", was an influential jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer, and vocalist, regarded as the "Father of Jazz Trombone".-Early life:...

, and Wingy Manone

Wingy Manone

Wingy Manone was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, singer, and bandleader. His major recordings included "Tar Paper Stomp", "Nickel in the Slot", "Downright Disgusted Blues", "There'll Come a Time ", and "Tailgate Ramble".- Biography :Manone was born Joseph Matthews Mannone in New Orleans,...

. After 1948 he moved to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 and there worked with Bud Freeman

Bud Freeman

Lawrence "Bud" Freeman was a U.S. jazz musician, bandleader, and composer, known mainly for playing the tenor saxophone, but also able at the clarinet. He had a smooth and full tenor sax style with a heavy robust swing. He was one of the most influential and important jazz tenor saxophonists of...

, Art Hodes

Art Hodes

Arthur W. Hodes , known professionally as Art Hodes, was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:...

 and Danny Alvin

Danny Alvin

Danny Alvin was an American jazz drummer and bandleader.Alvin was the father of guitarist Teddy Walters. He played with Sophie Tucker at the New York club Reisenweber's in 1919, then moved to Chicago in the early 1920s...

. O'Brien had recorded with Freeman as early as 1928; other recordings include with Eddie Condon

Eddie Condon

Albert Edwin Condon , better known as Eddie Condon, was a jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in the so-called "Chicago school" of early Dixieland, he also played piano and sang on occasion....

 (1933 and later), Fats Waller

Fats Waller

Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...

, Mezz Mezzrow

Mezz Mezzrow

Milton Mesirow, better known as Mezz Mezzrow was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist from Chicago, Illinois. Mezzrow is well known for organizing and financing historic recording sessions with Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet. Mezzrow also recorded a number of times with Bechet and...

, George Wettling

George Wettling

George Wettling was an American jazz drummer.He was one of the young white Chicagoans who fell in love with jazz as a result of hearing King Oliver's band at the Lincoln Gardens in Chicago in the early 1920s...

 (1940), Charles LaVere (1944), Albert Nicholas

Albert Nicholas

Albert Nicholas was an American jazz reed player.Nicholas's primary instrument was the clarinet, which he studied with Lorenzo Tio in his hometown of New Orleans. Late in the 1910s he played with Buddy Petit, King Oliver, and Manuel Perez...

 (1959), and Smokey Stover

Smokey Stover

Smokey Stover is an American comic strip written and drawn by cartoonist Bill Holman, from 1935 until he retired in 1973. Distributed through the Chicago Tribune, it features the wacky misadventures of the titular fireman, and had the longest run of any comic strip in the "screwball comics"...

. His lone session as a bandleader yielded two singles for Jump Records in 1945, which were also released under Charles LaVere's name.