Boyd Senter was a multi-instrumentalist and band leader, most commonly associated with his jazz-era clarinet playing. He helped start the careers of Glenn Miller and The Dorsey Brothers. As a vaudeville performer, he headlined with his jazz band and as a solo performer, having mastered several instruments. His later years involved non-musical employment, but he remained active in the local music scene.
Senter was born in Lyons, Nebraska, on November 30, 1899.[1] His mother's name was Idella.[2] He began learning the violin before he was old enough to go to school.[2] He next learned the cornet, his mother claiming he learned it in "one lesson."[2] A visiting carnival's bandleader took sick when Senter was twelve, and the youth was hired to lead the band in replacement.[2] He attended Omaha Central High School.[2] By the age of seventeen he was playing for pay in theatre accompanyment groups.[1] Upon hearing recordings of The Original Dixieland Jazz Band he decided he wanted to become a professional musician.[3]
He spent 1921 through 1922 leading his own band in Atlantic City.[1] He then went on tour through the midwest, travelling as far as Colorado.[4] This group gave Glenn Miller his start when he auditioned for them in 1922 at the age of 17.[4] Quitting that, he joined the Chicago Deluxe Orchestra in 1923.[1] In 1924 he was promoted as a "Jazzologist Supreme" and performed theatre dates where he performed solo on a wide variety of instruments.[5] In the mid-20s he also went back to fronting his own "Senterpede" bands for the rest of the 1920s, recording for Okeh Records, Paramount Records, and Victor Records.[1][6] Bandmembers included Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti.[7] About this time he married singer Edna Pierrou.[2] He joined a 1927 touring theater production of "S. S. Syncopation" with a band christened the Riviera Jazz Jesters instead of Senterpedes.[8] In the 1930s he directed the orchestra at Detroit's Colonial Theatre and headlined at variety Vaudeville shows, sometimes serving as master of ceremonies.[1][9][10]
During World War Two he owned a factory which was contracted to the U.S. government doing defense work.[11] Following the war he started another band in Detroit. He spent the 1950s and 1960s in Mio, Michigan running a bait-and-tackle shop named "Boyd's Sports Senter" while continuing to lead his Detroit band on weekends and continuing his "one man band" theater performances with less frequency as time progressed.[1][6][11][12] During this period he also operated a traveling band instrument repair service.[12]
A 1926 newspaper review called his theater performance "steaming music of the approved variety," noting his "wicked variations" on "St. Louis Blues".[13]Variety in 1929 described Senter's version "In the Jailhouse Now" as "sizzling blues".[14]Billboard reviewed a 1942 show by Senter as a mixture of entertainment and music that had "..the crowd stomping..." in an audience consisting of a high proportion of juveniles.[15] His vaudeville performances were sometimes with his band, and sometimes as a solo act, often accompanied by Jack Russell.[16][17]
Although most closely associated with the clarinet and saxophone, he also mastered the banjo, cornet, piano, trombone and violin in addition to several others.[17][18][19][20] The clarinet playing that made him internationally famous was, according to Brian Rust, clowning, and diminished his reputational posterity among jazz aficionados.[3] However, Rust considered Senter a performer with genuine jazz capabilities.[3] In addition to Glenn Miller, Senter was instrumental in the beginnings of The Dorsey Brothers careers.[21]
1 2 3 Kinkle, Roger D. (1974). The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz 1900-1950. Vol.3. Westport, Connecticut: Arlington House. p.1730. ISBN0-87000-229-5.
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