Blue Steele

The history of early 20th century jazz and pop music teems with dance bands that thrilled audiences in their day and have since become phantom entities with whom a small number of dedicated listeners may commune by studying the surviving recorded evidence. A special category of Territory Bands includes groups of musicians who operated throughout the southern and midwestern United States during the 1920s and '30s. One such dance orchestra was led by Blue Steele, a singer and trombonist who doubled on mellophone. Nearly forgotten for decades after his passing, this colorful char...