Theodore Dudley "Red" Saunders (March 2, 1912, Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

 – March 5, 1981, 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...

) 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...

 drummer and bandleader. He also played vibraphone

Vibraphone

The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....

 and timpani

Timpani

Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

.

Early in his career, Saunders played in Milwaukee and Chicago, playing with Stomp King. For a time, he worked with Tiny Parham

Tiny Parham

Hartzell Strathdene "Tiny" Parham was a Canadian-born American jazz bandleader and pianist of African-American descent....

 at the Savoy Ballroom

Savoy Ballroom

The Savoy Ballroom, located in Harlem, New York City, was a medium sized ballroom for music and public dancing that was in operation from March 12, 1926 to July 10, 1958. It was located between 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue....

 in Chicago. In 1937, the Club DeLisa

Club DeLisa

The Club DeLisa, also written Delisa or De Lisa, at State Street and Garfield Avenue, on the South Side, was an important nightclub and music venue in Chicago....

 gave Saunders control of the house band, where he remained (with one hiatus between 1945 and 1947) until the club closed in 1958. Among his sidemen were Leon Washington

Leon Washington (musician)

Leon Diamond Washington was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Born in Mississippi, Washington grew up in Chicago from the age of three. He started on clarinet before moving on to tenor saxophone, and studied under Santy Runyon...

, Porter Kilbert, Earl Washington

Earl Washington (musician)

Earl "The Ghost" Washington was a jazz pianist.-Early life:Washington grew up with his brothers and sisters, in the small community of Morgan Park, on Chicago’s far southwest side. He graduated from Morgan Park High School, as did his siblings...

, Sonny Cohn

Sonny Cohn

George T. "Sonny" Cohn was an American jazz trumpeter.After working for fifteen years with Red Saunders , he went on to spend another 24 years in Count Basie's trumpet section .-Biography:...

, Ike Perkins, Riley Hampton, and Mac Easton. Among the arrangers he employed were Johnny Pate

Johnny Pate

Johnny Pate is a jazz bassist who late became a music arranger/producer, and a leading figure in Chicago soul as well as pop/R&B music....

 and Sun Ra

Sun Ra

Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...

.

Despite his regular gig and disinclination to go on the road, Saunders also played with Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

, Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

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

, and Woody Herman

Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...

, and recorded with Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...

. He continued to lead a band at the Regal Theater

Regal Theater, South Side (Chicago)

The Regal Theater, located in the heart of Bronzeville, was an important night club and music venue in Chicago.Part of the Balaban and Katz chain, the lavishly decorated venue, with plush carpeting and velvet drapes featured some of the most celebrated black entertainers in America.The Regal also...

 in Chicago into the 1960s, and played with Little Brother Montgomery

Little Brother Montgomery

Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and blues pianist and singer....

 and Art Hodes

Art Hodes

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

 at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in the 1970s.

External links

• [ Red Saunders] at Allmusic
• Red Saunders Discography
• Red's Wife Ella Saunders http://www.leftyawarrior.net/thewashingtons/c.ella.htm