Herbie Kay
Herbie Kay, born Herbert Kaumeyer (1904 – May 11, 1944, Dallas) was an American trumpeter and big band leader.
Kay's career began while he was a student at Northwestern University, where he played in dance bands in the mid-1920s. He led his own group from the late 1920s, and played extensively in the Chicago area from the early 1930s to the early 1940s, including a longstanding residency at the Blackhawk Restaurant.[1] Kay hired Dorothy Lamour as a vocalist in 1934, and married her in 1935; by 1936, Lamour had moved to Hollywood to pursue a film career, and her marriage to Kay ended in 1939.[2]
He recorded for Vocalion and Columbia Records and toured throughout the Western US; his band’s songs included a specially-written novelty dance tune, “Rhythm Steps”. For most of his career, he led a band with four saxophones, four brass instruments, and three rhythm instruments. Singers included Shirley Lloyd, Fuzzy Combs, King Harvey, and a vocal trio called “The Three Kays”. He dissolved the group in the early 1940s and moved to Dallas, where he died in 1944.
