Chris Columbo

Joseph Chris Columbo Morris, better known as Crazy Chris Columbo,^[1] (1902–2002)^[2] was an American jazz drummer. Prior to a stroke which partially paralyzed him in 1993, Columbo was the oldest working musician in Atlantic City.^[1]

Columbo got his first professional gig playing with Fletcher Henderson in 1921. Between the 1920s and the 1960s, he played at most of the city's nightclubs, and led the Club Harlem orchestra for 34 years until 1978, when the club shut its doors. Thereafter, Columbo's band went on to perform at practically every Atlantic City casino hotel. At the time of his stroke, he was playing regularly at the Showboat.^[1]

Columbo worked, recorded, and toured with such luminaries as Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong, Wild Bill Davis, and Ella Fitzgerald. Columbo did an album on the Strand label called Chris Columbo Quintet including a version of "Summertime" featuring organist Johnny "Hammond" Smith. This record (flip side an uptempo minor blues called "Minerology") was fairly successful on radio in the early 1960s. Columbo flipped his sticks in the air, bounced them off the floor and often leaped from a motorcycle seat which was his drum throne. His son was the Count Basie Orchestra drummer Sonny Payne.^{[citation needed]}

Death

Columbo died in 2002 at the age of 100, having outlived all his contemporaries. In 2005, in recognition of his historic importance to the city, a section of Kentucky Avenue, home of Club Harlem, was renamed Chris Columbo Lane.

Selected discography

• Evening concerts (with Wild Bill Davis, 1954)
• Summertime (Strand, 1963)
• Live at the Hollywood Bowl (with Duke Ellington, 1967)
• Floyd's Guitar Blues (with Floyd Smith, 1972)
• Black and Blue Stomp (with Milt Buckner, 1973)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Kent, Bill (1996-08-04). "A Jazz-Age Survivor", The New York Times.
2. ^ David Schwartz (Mon, February 2, 2009). "The Time Keeper".

Persondata
Name	Columbo, Joseph Chris Morris
Alternative names	Columbus, Joseph Morris Christopher; Morris, Joseph; Morris, Joe
Short description	American jazz drummer
Date of birth	1902
Place of birth
Date of death	2002
Place of death