Snub Mosley (by Matt Robertson)

Diamond, Harry. Snub Mosley. 1978. Photograph. National Portrait Gallery. National Portrait Gallery. https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp164482/lawrence-leo-snub-mosley.

I chose to research an interview with jazz trombonist Snub Mosley (1905-1981) from the Frank Driggs collection. The reason that I fixated on this interview was because it had clearer audio quality than many other of the files I perused in the collection. Additionally, the interview stuck out for Mosley’s compelling stories of his career as a jazz trombonist in territory bands in the 20s and 30s. and later with big names such as Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller.

Snub Mosley was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on December 29, 1905. By the time he was 15 he was touring with Alphonse Trent’s territory band, a leading territory band throughout the Southwest. Territory bands were bands that played in a variety of states in the midwest and southwest in the 20s and 30s. The interview is a primary source and thus an indispensable window into history, but did not provide a background on what territory bands were and I had to research it myself, similarly to Mosley’s birth date and birth place. This interview is a casual setting with Frank Driggs and Snub Mosley having known each other before, and largely consists of Driggs asking Mosley about different musicians he was associated with and where they might be during the time of the interview (1970s). What this interview lacks in context, however, it makes up for in stories. Mosley tells stories that give the listener an idea of what life was like for the musicians in territory bands. One particular story emphasized a harsh reality for black musicians touring the Midwest and Southwest in the 20s and 30s: racism. Here, Mosley recounts a time that he was with Alphonse Trent’s band and they played at a white hotel in Dallas. Somebody told the KKK that a black band was playing at a white hotel and after the show, Trent was tipped off by some of these rich white concertgoers that the KKK was looking for them, and they were able to flee before they could be found and possibly killed. While this puts a negative light on life for these musicians, it also shows that even then there existed allyship from rich, white music fans that made it possible for them to survive. In another part of the interview, Mosley recounts a time that he followed legendary and acclaimed trombonist Kid Ory on some kind of radio program. In response, Driggs asks “Can you imagine Kid Ory trying to follow you?” suggesting that Mosley was a virtuoso that could easily outplay one of the legends of that time, despite not being nearly as well known.

Frank Driggs’ interview with Snub Mosley is in line with the majority of the other interviews in the collection in that it covers an obscure musician playing in a territory band in the 20s and 30s. It tells me that this collection is not meant to give the full scope of these musicians’ lives, but rather give an idea of what they talked like and to hear about some of their experiences first hand. Through this, we can paint a picture for ourselves of the experience of territory musicians in the 20s and 30s and learn about great musicians that might have otherwise been lost to time.

Bibliography:

Mosley, Snub, performer, and Driggs, Frank, compiler. “Snub Mosley [sound recording].” UMKC Nichols Library Marr Sound Archives, FD-CASS-49.
https://merlin.lib.umsystem.edu/search~S3?/tFrank+Driggs+Collection./tfrank+driggs+collection/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CB/frameset&FF=tfrank+driggs+collection&289%2C%2C313
https://umkc.app.box.com/s/e0cve995t1f1kq38ujde9q4mmnr7j5q9/file/1312253900839