Overton "Ovie" Alston 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...

 trumpeter, vocalist, and bandleader

Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....

.

Alston played with Bill Brown

Bill Brown

Bill Brown may refer to:*Bill Brown , Australian cricketer*Bill Brown , Australian Senator*Bill Brown , Scottish football player...

 and His Brownies in New York in 1928, recording with them for Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...

. He was hired by Claude Hopkins

Claude Hopkins

Claude Driskett Hopkins was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.-Biography:Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University...

 in 1931 and remained with him until 1936; it is for this association that he is best known. After leaving Hopkins he started his own band, playing at the Apollo Theater

Apollo Theater

The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...

, the Plantation Club, the Ubangi Club and the Roseland Ballroom

Roseland Ballroom

The Roseland Ballroom is a multi-purpose hall, in a converted ice skating rink, with a colorful ballroom dancing pedigree, in New York City's theatre district, on West 52nd Street....

 in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He toured with the band for the armed forces during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

; Noble Sissle

Noble Sissle

Noble Sissle was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.-Early life:...

 and Eubie Blake

Eubie Blake

James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...

 joined the group during this time.

Alston continued working major New York hotels and ballrooms after the war; his sidemen included, at times, Bobby Sands, Edmond Hall

Edmond Hall

Edmond Hall was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader. His father Edward Blainey Hall and mother Caroline Duhe had eight children, Priscilla , Moretta , Viola , Robert , Edmond , Clarence , Edward and Herbert .-Early life:Born in Reserve, Louisiana, about...

, and Fernando Arbello

Fernando Arbello

Fernando Arbello was a Puerto Rican jazz trombonist and composer who spent most of his career in America.Arbello first started on trombone at age 12. He played locally in high school bands and symphony orchestras, then moved to New York City in the middle of the 1920s...

. Late in his career he did mostly private concerts.