King Fleming
Walter "King" Fleming ( born May 4, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois, † April 1, 2014 in Manteno, Illinois) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and bandleader.
Career
Walter Fleming played trombone in high school and then studied at the Midwest College of Music. He then headed up some loose formations, before he founded in 1942 King Fleming and His Swing Band. After he was drafted in July 1943 for military service, played his band continued under the direction of the other band members. After his discharge from the Army in 1945 Fleming worked as a session musician in Los Angeles, played with Johnnie Alston & His All Stars, with which he accompanied Wynonie Harris when shooting for Apollo; He also played with Addison Farmer. In 1946 he was a member of the swing band Oliver "King" Perry's Pied Pipers. Then he returned to Chicago to perform there in 1947 with his own band, the King Fleming's Four.
In 1950, he belonged to the Dallas Bartley quartet, in which also played the drummer Oliver Coleman and worked as a session musician for various vocal groups, such as the Dozier Boys with their recordings for Chess Records. After that he played with Oliver Coleman's Palm Aires. In 1954 he made his first recordings under his own name for the label Blue Lake; with it as a band singer Lorez Alexandria and as a saxophonist John Neely. In 1955, he took for Chess King as " Flemings " on ( " Stompin 'at the Savoy "); In 1957 he accompanied with his band Lorez Alexandria in their first two own albums for King Records and worked with Muhal Richard Abrams, who wrote some arrangements for a big band led by King Fleming. Between 1960 and 1965 he recorded three piano trio albums for Argo and Cadet Records, the sublabel of jazz of the Chess label. In the following years he has predominantly been in the Chicago area with his trio on without him were more shots possible. Only in 1996 was a new album, as he recorded for Southport Records.