Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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LAWSON, Yank

(b John Rhea Lausen, 3 May 1911, Trenton MO; d 18 February 1995) Trumpeter and bandleader. Played other instruments, concentrated on trumpet from his teens; played with Ben Pollack '33-4, then his likeable dixielandish style was a mainstay of the Bob Crosby band '35-8 and again '41. He also played in other bands, freelanced in studio and pit band work in NYC, recorded for Commodore and other labels in small groups, nearly always with Crosby alumnus Bob Haggart on bass (b 13 March 1914, NYC). Then they formed a recording outfit the Lawson/Haggart Jazz Band to keep Crosby fans happy, making LPs for Decca '51-8. He continued recording occasionally for Signature, Everest, ABC-Paramount, Audiophile, Jazzology etc, usually with Haggart. He re-created King Oliver's sound when producer Milt Gabler recorded Louis Armstrong's Musical Autobiography '57. Appearances with Haggart at Dick Gibson's Colorado Jazz Parties evolved into tentet the World's Greatest Jazz Band (WGJB) '67: the hyperbole in the name put off some critics, but fans understood; they were celebrating the proud tradition of earlier groups such as the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, New Orleans Rhythm Kings etc with their own up-to-date arrangements of the best pop songs. (Jazz enterpreneur Gibson d 17 June 1998 aged 72.)

WGJB albums appeared on their own labels and on Enoch Light's hi-tech Project 3 '67-9; then on Atlantic (live At The Roosevelt Grill [later on a Rhino CD] and studio What's New? '70); the band included founder members Lawson, Haggart, Bud Freeman, Bob Wilber, Billy Butterfield, Ralph Sutton and several other Swing Era greats who were being ignored by the major labels. The music resembled that of the Crosby band, drew on material from dixieland classics to standards and show tunes, albums of Ellington and country songs. There were more albums on World Jazz, Everest, Signature, Flying Dutchman/RCA, Monmouth-Evergreen through '77; Lawson and Lawson/Haggart continued to record; a last gasp of WGJB on Timeless '85 was made in Ludwigsburg by an octet with Eddie Miller on tenor and Marty Grosz on guitar. There are several Lawson/Haggart albums on Audiophile and Jazzology including some backing vocalist Barbara Lea; Bob Haggart's Swing Three: Hag Leaps In on Arbors has John Bunch and Bucky Pizzarelli. WGJB albums on World were reissued on Jazzology '97.