Adolphus J. Alsbrook
Ellington's Bass Player, 1939

supplement to
The Duke – Where and When
A Chronicle of Duke Ellington's Working Life and Travels

Section 8/1 of The International DEMS Bulletin 03/1 April-July 2003 is titled "Another little known Ellingtonian," and opens by quoting an October 13, 1939 Kansas City Call report discovered by Ken Steiner saying Adolphus J. Alsbrook was a recent addtion to Ellington's orchestra. The Bulletin carries related comments from correspondents of the Duke-LYM email discussion list.

String bassist Adolphus Jeremiah Alsbrook, Jr. [1912 02 21 - 1988 06 02] played in the Ellington orchestra for perhaps a month in late 1939.

Who was Mr. Alsbrook?

• The Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Mo. 1988-06-08 p.8B

  'ADOLPHUS J. ALSBROOK
       Adolphus J. Alsbrook. North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, formerly of Kansas City, Kan., died June 2, 1988 at a hospital in North Vancouver. He was born in Kansas City, Kan., and had lived in North Vancouver for more than 20 years. Mr. Alsbrook was a string musician, playing the violin, bass violin, cello and harp, and began his career playing with jazz bands in the area of 18th and Vine streets in Kansas City. He later played with orchestras led by LaForrest Dent, King Oliver, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington, and arranged music for Tommy Dorsey and Lawrence Welk. He attended the University of Kansas and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Survivors include his wife, Helga Lichtenstagen Alsbrook of the home, a son, Darryl Spillane Alsbrook..., two brothers. James Eldridge Alsbrook ... and William Noel Alsbrook... and three grandchildren...'

Early life:

• According to his 1940 draft registration card and a 1951 Chicago and North Western Railroad employment record, Adolphus Jeremiah Alsbrook Jr. was born February 21, 1912 in Kansas City, Kansas. The latter document names his father as Irving Adolphus Alsbrook and his mother as Elgeitha Dorothy Stovall. The former shows he was 6' ¹/2" tall, weighing 188 pounds
• Adolphus' father, Irving, died when Adolphus was four (Canadian Magazine, 1968-01-06).
• According to Elgeitha's obituary, she taught in Kansas City public schools, and among other things, instructed private piano classes, was an organist in one church and pianist in another. (The Plaindealer, Kansas City, Kansas 1958-09-26 pp.1,2)
• The Kansas City Kansan, Kansas City, Kansas, 1921-05-08 p.5C has him as a participant in a relay race for grade 3 and 4 boys in a field day at Heathwood Park school track meet.
• The 1925 census for Kansas City has Adolphus J. as the eldest of 3 sons living with their widowed mother in her parent's home.
• The 1930 census also shows Adolphus J. as the eldest, living with their widowed mother in the home of her now widowed mother.
• Canadian Magazine (below) reported Adolphus boxed 96 professional welterweight matches as Alfonso Alvarez. Three fight cards listed in the 1930-02-21, 1930-02-25 and 1930-03-04 Kansas City newspapers and a brief report in the The Californian, Salinas, Cal. 1930-03-12 show bouts with Alfonso Alvarez, although that fighter is described as Cuban in some.

University years:

• 1931-05-06 p.2 lists Adolphus as one of four bassists in the University of Kansas symphony orchestra (a photo of the orchestra in the 1931 yearbook shows two male and two female bassists, but the personnel list above the photo names six).
• 1931 09-18 p.8 lists him as one of five bassists in the University of Kansas symphony orchestra.
• 1932-01-12 p.2 and 1932-09-29 p.5 list him as the principal bassist in the University of Kansas symphony orchestra.
• 1933-01-16 p.2 lists him as a guest performer with the University of Kansas symphony orchestra.

Between University and Ellington:

• The Plaindealer, Kansas City, Kansas
  • 1936-04-03 p.5:

    'ADOLPHUS ALSBROOK JOINS LEE ELI RICE ORCHESTRA
         Adolphus Alsbrook, 1148 Armstrong, who has been engaged for the past two weeks at the Sunset Club, plans to return to Minneapolis, Minnesota Monday. Mr. Adolphus has signed up with the Lee Eli Rice Orchestra of Minnesota. This group tours the Northern States during the summer and the coast and Southern states during fall and winter. Mr. Alsbrook will play the bass violin and perhaps the banjo.'

  • 1936-04-10 p.5:

    'Mr. Adolphus J.M.Alsbrook left the city Wednesday night for Minneapolis, Minn., where he will join Eli Rice's orchestra as bass violinist and arranger. The orchestra will tour western states until the autumn, when Mr. Alsbrook will enter the University of Southern California.'

  • 1936-07-10 p.4

    'Adolphus Alsbrook, mine honorable kinsman, is playing with a band now touring Idaho and has captured a wild coyote which he threatens to send home.'

  • The 1937 and 1938 Minneapolis city directories list Alsbrook Adolphus musician r106 Highland av.
• Minneapolis Spokesman, 1935-09-27 and St. Paul Recorder of the same date announced a matinee dance sponsored by Leon H. Vaughn and Adolphus J. Alsbrook, Jr. would be held October 10 in Minneapolis. The orchestra was to be led by Rook Ganz [sic]. This was to be the first of a series of weekly dances every Sunday afternoon until January 2, 1938.
• In 1939, youngest brother Noel sang baritone in the Deep River Plantation Singers quartet (see The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah 1939-03-19 p.14E and the Ogden Utah Weber College Signpost 1939-03-24). In 1943, William Noel Alsbrook became a Tuskegee airman, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross over Austria in 1944 as well as four Bronze battle stars.
• Minneapolis Spokesman, 1939-03-24 and both Minneapolis Spokesman, 1939-03-31 and St. Paul Recorder, same date, included Adolphus J. Alsbrook, Jr. in lists of workers in an NAACP membership drive.

With Ellington:

• Mr. Alsbrook's time in the Ellington orchestra was brief.
• DEMS 04/3-51:

  'The best estimate Ken could make is that Adolphus worked for Ellington between mid September and mid October 1939. He knows that it was a month and since Adolphus was from Kansas City Ken suspects that he left the band around 8 or 9oct39 when the band played there.'

• DEMS quotes Kansas City Call, Kansas City, 1939-10-13 (unearthed by Ken Steiner):

  'Adolphus J. Alsbrook of Kansas City, Kas., and Minneapolis, Minn., is a recent addition to Duke Ellington's orchestra. He plays the bass violin, harp, accordion and guitar, and has arranged music for such orchestras as Red Nichols, Paul Pendarvis and others in Minneapolis. He has composed several novelty numbers. A graduate of Sumner high school, he has attended the University of Kansas, the University of Minnesota and the Chicago Conservatory of Music. He is also the brother of William Noel Alsbrook of the Deep River quartet and James E. Alsbrook of the Call staff. '

  and Steiner's comment:

  'Note: Billy Taylor was the orchestra's bassist at the time. Perhaps Alsbrook sat in with the band for a short while as a second bassist. Evidently things didn't work out. Duke would pick up a pretty good bass player shortly thereafter.'

• In reporting the 2004 International Duke Ellington Study Group Conference in Stockholm, DEMS 04/2-10 cites Steiner:

  'Waiting to be published in a future Bulletin is a letter which DEMS received from Darryl Scott Alsbrook, the son of the bass-player Adolphus Alsbrook, mentioned by Ken Steiner (and commented on by others) on Duke-LYM... Steiner reported of his meeting with the son. [Darryl] did not get to know his father until he (Darryl) was a grown man. In the documentation about his father he only found: Duke Ellington 1939. Adolphus told his son that he left Ellington because he could make more money arranging...The best estimate Ken could make is that Adolphus worked for Ellington between mid September and mid October 1939. He knows that it was a month and since Adolphus was from Kansas City Ken suspects that he left the band around 8 or 9oct39 when the band played there...'

• Alsbrook's resume (see sidebar) says he played in Boyd Atkins' band before Ellington. The Brainerd Daily Dispatch, Brainerd, Minn. September 9 to 16 carried brief ads saying that band's last dance of the season was to be September 16. This suggests Alsbrook may have been available by mid-September. While the 1940 city directory for Kansas City shows Alsbrook living there, the Minneapolis city directories list him in 1938, 1940 and 1941. The two cities are about 440 miles apart; it would seem Alsbrook's life was centred on one or the other when he joined Duke.
Palmquist to Steven Lasker Oct.2022:

'That aircheck date troubles me ... in the sense New Desor seems have misdated it and ... because you say the quality isn't good enough to confirm 2 basses. Why would sources say Blanton was on it, unless he's named by the announcer or listed on the label?...Jerry Valburn reported broadcasts from the Coronado were recorded by Jerry Shirley and acquired by Timme Rosenkrantz when he bought Shirley's record cutter when Shirley began military service. (DEMS 91/1-3).'

Lasker's reply:

'The Coronado broadcast was recorded by Shirley off the radio with his home disc cutter. It is thus an aircheck, or airshot. When a broadcaster records a radio program, it is typically taken off the "line", not off the air. This is called a line transcription, and is by its nature of higher quality than an aircheck...Blanton isn't named by the announcer...'

---

Ken Steiner Oct.2022:

'My guess is that AA and JB were not in the band at the same time. I suppose it’s possible, but if they were, there would have been three bassists on the stage of the Club Caprice. The Kansas City Call article was dated Oct. 7. Most weekly Black papers hit the newsstands two days earlier. The KC Call would have had to have know about Adolphus joining Duke by Oct. 4 then, but probably earlier. And I don’t think AA’s joining Duke would have been newsworthy on his first night; it would have take several days for it to be official, and then several days for the news to get reported to the KC Call, and a few days for them to write it up. So that pushes us back to Adolphus joining around Sept 15, which I think is pretty typical lag time from event to news report in Black papers. The reference to Blanton’s knowledge of Adolphus does not necessarily mean they were in the band at the same time; they would have likely known each other as Blanton was in Missouri for a long time prior to joining Duke.'

• Why Alsbrook was hired isn't known. The Ellington orchestra began a tour of the midwest September 22. It may be that bassist Billy Taylor was absent so Ellington needed a substitute when the band reached the midwest, or it may be that Ellington decided to begin using two basses again as he had from late 1934 until March 1938.
• Greer claimed to have discovered Blanton the night before the Chase [recte Coronado] Hotel (Club Caprice) opening, and that Duke had Blanton playing the Club Caprice opening night (Stuart Nicholson, A Portrait of Duke Ellington, Reminiscing in Tempo, p.214)
  
  Both Ellington (Music is My Mistress, p.164) and Barney Bigard (With Louis and the Duke, pp.73-74) say Bigard, Webster (improbably) and Hodges discovered Jimmie Blanton during the Club Caprice residency in St. Louis. Regardless, during that residency Ellington invited Blanton to sit in, as apparently (see sidebar) confirmed by the recorded broadcast dated November 1 or 2 in New Desor, Vail I and Ellingtonia V which report Taylor and Blanton in the broadcast.
  
  
• It seems likely Alsbrook was hired as a sub when the band was in the vicinity of Minneapolis or Kansas City, the earliest of those dates being October 2. It also seems likely he stayed until after Blanton was discovered, since he reportedly told Charles Mingus:

  '...Jimmy [sic] Blanton told me he (Adolphus) carved a wooden pick with one hand, kept playing with the other, finished his pick, and played more than a guitar with it.'

  (Bob Smith, "About pop/rock/jazz," The Vancouver Sun, Vancouver B.C. 1971-08-06 p.27A)
• The band's known tour locations:
  • 1939 09 22 Erie, Penn.
  • 1939 09 23 unknown
  • 1939 09 24 Alliance, Ohio
  • 1939 09 25 Ambridge, Penn.
  • 1939 09 26 unknown
  • 1939 09 27 Sharon, Penn.
  • 1939 09 28 Detroit
  • 1939 09 29 Dayton, Ohio
  • 1939 09 30 unknown
  • 1939 10 01 unknown
  • 1939 10 02 St. Paul, Minn.
  • 1939 10 03 unknown
  • 1939 10 04 unknown
  • 1939 10 05 unknown
  • 1939 10 06 Carroll, Iowa
  • 1939 10 07 Lincoln, Neb.
  • 1939 10 08 Kansas City
  • 1939 10 09 Kansas City
  • 1939 10 10 Junction City, Kansas
  • 1939 10 11 unknown
  • 1939 10 12 unknown
  • 1939 10 13 Bloomington, Ind.
  • 1939 10 14 Chicago
  • 1939 10 15 Chicago
  • 1939 10 16 Chicago
  • 1939 10 17 Madison, Wisc.
  • 1939 10 18 Madison
  • 1939 10 19 Kansas City
  • 1939 10 20 St. Louis
    (Blanton was discovered during this engagement and reportedly sat in with the band)
  • 1939 10 21 St. Louis
  • 1939 10 22 St. Louis
  • 1939 10 23 St. Louis
  • 1939 10 24 St. Louis
  • 1939 10 25 St. Louis
  • 1939 10 26 St. Louis
  • 1939 10 27 St. Louis
  • 1939 10 28 St. Louis
  • 1939 10 29 St. Louis
  • 1939 10 30 St. Louis
  • 1939 10 31 St. Louis
  • 1939 11 01 St. Louis
  • 1939 11 02 St. Louis
    (Blanton played in the band broadcast)
  • 1939 11 03 Evansville, Ind.
    (with Blanton)
  • 1939 11 04 Champaign, Ill.
  • 1939 11 05 Springfield, Ill.
  • 1939 11 06 unknown
  • 1939 11 07 unknown
  • 1939 11 08 Joplin, Mo.
  • 1939 11 09 Wichita, Kans.
  • 1939 11 10 Wichita
  • 1939 11 11 Oklahoma City
  • 1939 11 12 unknown
  • 1939 11 13 unknown
  • 1939 11 14 Great Bend, Kansas
  • 1939 11 15 Kansas City
  • 1939 11 16 St. Louis
  • 1939 11 17 unknown
  • 1939 11 18 unknown
  • 1939 11 19 Gary, Ind.
  • 1939 11 20 Chicago
  • 1939 11 21 Chicago
  • 1939 11 22 Chicago
  • 1939 11 23 Dixon, Ill.
  • 1939 11 24 Chicago
  • 1939 11 25 Peoria, Ill.
  • 1939 11 26 Peoria
  • 1939 11 27 unknown
  • 1939 11 28 unknown
  • 1939 11 29 unknown
  • 1939 11 30 Birmingham, Ala.
  • 1939 12 01 unknown
  • 1939 12 02 Terre Haute, Ind.
  • 1939 12 03 Indianapolis
  • 1939 12 04 Chicago
  • 1939 12 05 unknown
  • 1939 12 06 unknown
  • 1939 12 07 unknown
  • 1939 12 08 Bloomington, Ind.
  • 1939 12 09 Chicago
  • 1939 12 10 Cincinnati
  • 1939 12 11 Cleveland
  • 1939 12 12 unknown
  • 1939 12 13 unknown
  • 1939 12 14 unknown
  • 1939 12 15 Pittsburgh
  • 1939 12 16 Indianapolis
  • 1939 12 17 Vincennes, Ind.
  • 1939 12 18 unknown
  • 1939 12 19 unknown
  • 1939 12 20 Chicago
  • 1939 12 21 unknown
  • 1939 12 22 Muncie, Ind.
  • 1939 12 23 Muncie
  • 1939 12 24 unknown
  • 1939 12 25 Union City, Tenn.
  • 1939 12 26 Sikeston, Mo.
  • 1939 12 27 unknown
  • 1939 12 28 unknown
  • 1939 12 29 Chicago
  • 1939 12 30 Chicago
  • 1939 12 31 Chicago
• Unless Alsbrook was hired for a specific period, it seems either he would have given two weeks notice if he decided to quit, or Ellington would have given him two weeks notice if he was to be replaced by Blanton. That being the case, the earliest he would have left the band would have been the date Blanton was hired, November 3.

After Ellington:

• The 1940 Kansas City city directory lists Alsbrook Adolphus musician r1148 Armstrong av. His mother Elgeitha and brothers Jas. E and Noel are listed at the same address. The 1940 Minneapolis city directory also lists him, at 3632 Snelling av
• The 1941 Minneapolis city directory lists Alsbrook Adolphus J musician r3632 Snelling av.
• The Minnesota Official Marriage System shows Adolph [sic] Alsbrook married Anna M. Spillane in 1942. This was Mrs. Alsbook's second marriage. They had a son that year.
• Alsbrook lived in Seattle during 1945, 1946 and 1947.
  
  In Jackson Street After Hours, The Roots of Jazz in Seattle, Seattle, Sasqauatch Books, 1993, at page 95, author Paul de Barros
  • credits him with mentoring bassist Wyatt Ruther.
  • says he had studied classicl bass and harp.
  • cites Leon Vaughn saying Alsbrook worked with Lester Young, Eli Rice and Julian Henson [AA's resume confirms Young and Rice]
  • says Alsbrook taught judo in the Minneapolis police department
  • quotes Basie bassist Gene Ramey:

    '...I used to see him walking across the viaduct from Kansas City, Kansas, to Kansas City, Missouri, with his bass on his back. He was a great bass player, but he complained that Duke was using all the wrong chords. He was a great arranger, too, but he didn't want to consider that Duke was creating a new sound in music. He became a professor up at the University of Minnesota.'

    [the professorship has not been confirmed]
  • says Alsbrook moved to Seattle and worked as a waiter on the Great Northern Empire Builder, which ran from Chicago to Tacoma.
  • played with Leon Vaughn’s band and Ernestine Anderson, Kenny Boas, and a variety of other Seattle players including Wyatt Howard.
  • Alsbrook had tremendous ‘legit” technique, with and without a bow.
  • Alsbrook suffered from narcolepsy, notorious for dozing off while playing.
  • quotes Ms Anderson, Alsbrook's first cousin once removed, saying he stayed at a hotel in Chinatown with a piano and a wall of books in his room.
  • His wife was a dancer, and Adolphus wrote music for Hollywood, including tunes for Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass.
• A cursory search of www.discogs.com shows Alsbrook playing bass on:
  • Sam Cooke
    • Just For You
    • Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha
    • You Were Made For Me
    • (What A) Wonderful World
    • Win Your Love for Me
  • Earl Bostic
    • Avalon
  • The 1950 U.S. census shows Alsbrook, Adolphus J. Lodger at 1517 Olson, Minneapolis.
  • Alsbrook appears to have worked as a waiter for the C.St.P.M.& O Ry in 1951.
  • The Minneapolis Star, Minneapolis, Minn. 1953-10-15 p.11 listed a marriage licence application for Adolphus J. Alsbrook and Helga E. Lindenstaedt.
  • In March 1955, Joe Liggins, Willie Jackson, Herman Mitchell and Adolphus Alsbrook were reported to be playing at the Inglewood Trade Winds Club, Inglewood, Cal. (Florence Cadrez, "Mostly 'Bout Musicians," Los Angeles Sentinel, Los Angeles, Cal. 1955-03-31 p.A11, courtesy S.Bowie)
  • In October, 1955, Marl Young, Estelle Edmerson, Adolphus Alsbrook and James Jackson were reported to be playing at the El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles. (Florence Cadrez, "Mostly 'Bout Musicians," Los Angeles Sentinel, Los Angeles, Cal. 1955-10-20 p.A11, courtesy S.Bowie)
  • The 1956 and 1958 voter's lists for Los Angeles County have Adolphus but not Helga.
  • Alsbrook’s mother, Elgeithea D. Alsbrook, died in September 1958 (Plain Dealer, Kansas City, 1958-09-26). The Los Angeles Sentinel reported Mr. Alsbrook, a Los Angeles resident, flew to Kaysee, Kay, for the funeral. The Sentinel reported she was survived by two other sons, James E. Alsbrook of Kansas City, Hans, and William N. Alsbrook of Chicago, four grandchildren and other relatives and friends. (Juanita Goodman, "Kaysee Kopy," Los Angeles Sentinel, Los Angeles, Cal. 1958-10-02 p.C2, courtesy S.Bowie)
  • The 1960 and 1962 voter's lists for Los Angeles County have Adolphus and Helga.
  • Weekend newspaper supplement The Canadian Magazine, 1968-01-06 pp.2-4 featured three American families planning to move to Canada (Frank Rasky: "They're Sick of Guns and Violence," The Province, Vancouver, B.C. and The Calgary Herald, Calgary, Alta. of that date). A page and a half are devoted to the Alsbrooks, including a portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Alsbrook with Mrs. Alsbrook's mother. This article describes meeting Mr. and Mrs. Alsbrook in their duplex apartment a few blocks from the Watts district of Los Angeles about two years after the Watts riot:
    • They owned a revolver and a Winchester rifle and had six locks on their back door. They told the reporter Helga would not answer the front door to strangers, including police, without seeing proper credentials.
    • Alsbrook was a proud, college-educated man who was alienated from the "Deep South illiterates" in the ghetto where he lives. He married into a German family that had suffered from anti-Jewish terrorism under Hitler's Gestapo.
    • Alsbrook's in-laws called him King Adolphus because he carries his six-foot, 205-pound self with grace. He doesn't drink, smoke, swear or gamble.
    • He was a middleweight boxer in the 1930s, fighting 96 professional bouts from Chicago as Adolfo Alvarez. (Cards for two bantam weight six-round bouts with Adolfo Alvarez versus Wildcat Holloway are shown in February 1930 editions of The Kansas City Times and The Salinas Index-Journal, Salinas, Cal. 1930-03-12 p.6 reported a six-round draw in Kansas City between Adolfo Alvarez of Cuba and Johnny Wright of Los Angeles.)
    • He was a policeman in Minneapolis during the second world war, teaching his colleagues jiu-jitsu.
    • As a musician he performed in dives, clubs and concert tours with such great band leaders as Ellington, Basie, King Oliver, Benny Carter and Cab Calloway.
    • Moved to Los Angeles circa 1955, playing bass with Jack Fina's orchestra at the Beverly Hills Hotel for $137/week. Also plays jazz on the side and writes arrangements, making over $10,000 a year.
    • Plans to work as a business administrator for a Chinese import-export firm when he moves to Vancouver.
    • The story includes his wife's and her parents' experiences in Germany and as immigrants. It describes how Helga and Adolphus met and some of the problems she encountered as a result of their interracial marriage.
    • Alsbrook's father died when he was four. His mom had a lighter complection since she had Indian blood.
    • Adolphus was quoted:

      'I soon learned that as long as you have a black face in America, you've got to accept prejudice. Not riot against it ... Only a fool would try to buck the white power structure of America. I can take the guff. But my wife and her folks have had too rough a life to take it. After Watts, all of America seemed to be going through a nervous breakdown. We decided to call it quits before the country got sicker.'

    • Alsbrook relates their pleasant experiences on vacation in Vancouver in the summer of 1967, the positive racial climate in Vancouver. They went house-hunting immediately, and bought a split-level home in North Vancouver.
    • Alsbrook packed piles of books and sheet music, but told the reporter he wouldn't have to take his revolver when he moved to Vancouver.
  • Jazz columnist Bob Smith, writing in the Vancouver Sun 1971-08-06 p.27A, described telling Alsbrook about being mentioned by Charles Mingus in his memoir Beneath the Underdog. Smith's additional comments include:
    • Alsbrook always makes visiting stars' rehearsals and often is known to the sidemen in the acts.
    • One of the first to use a string bass instead of a tuba in dance bands of the early 1930s.
    • At age 59, Adolphus spends most of his time writing and arranging music, trying to interest visiting stars in his charts.
    • Smith read Alsbrook a conversation between Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus:
      • Parker:
        The other night I heard a cat play the way Adolphus Alsbrook used to. I didn't suppose it to be possible, but they do it.
      • Mingus: Bird, you putting me on? That's the second time I heard about Adolphus Alsbrook. Jimmy Blanton told me he (Adolphus) carved a wooden pick with one hand, kept playing with the other, finished his pick, and played more than a guitar with it.
      • Alsbrook's reaction:
        Well that's very nice but they're wrong about one thing. I learned to use a kind of guitar pick on my bass by talking to Wellman Braud, you know, the fellow from New Orleans that used to play with Duke Ellington.
    
    

    ---