Odell Rand was born in 1905 in New Orleans; he died on 22 June 1960 in Chicago, Ill.
Robert Stendhal recalls: “I saw Odell Rand in a band with Jasper Taylor and Natty Dominique. I doubt he was 5 feet tall, more like 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 m).” Quoted in Hillman. C., Middleton, R., & Chaigne, M. Chicago Swingers. Cygnet Publications 2010. Stendhal’s visit was probably in the 1940s and perhaps the photograph of Natty Dominique’s Creole Band is from the same source.
At his size, he would not have been able to play a “normal” Bb clarinet. He chose to play an Eb model. From the few published photographs of him, he played an Albert (simple, Mueller or German) system instrument. On most of his recordings he kept to the low (chalumeau) register particularly when accompanying singers but for solos he occasionally played in the upper (clarion) range. He had a very reedy tone which he succeeded in maintaining even in the upper register; this is quite a feat because the upper range of the Eb clarinet tends to be loud and shrill. Very few players of Eb clarinets attempt to play in the low register.
Most of his recordings were made with the Harlem Hamfats (199 tracks). The same musicians also recorded as The Palooka Washboard Band (4 tracks). The Harlem Hamfats was a band based in Chicago, not in Harlem. J. Mayo Williams was head of the “race records” for Decca. He assembled t
