Leon Brown “Chu” Berry was born September 13, 1908, in Wheeling, West Virginia. After high school, he attended West Virginia State College for three years. Berry became interested in music at an early age, playing alto saxophone, at first with local bands. He was inspired to take up the tenor saxophone after hearing Coleman Hawkins on tour.
In the late ’20s, Berry joined Sammy Stewart’s touring band and eventually settled in New York City where he became a key member of some of the greatest big bands of the 1930s—groups led by Benny Carter and Fletcher Henderson, for whom Berry wrote “Christopher Columbus,” Henderson’s last major hit. He also appeared on recordings by Bessie Smith, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson, and The Chocolate Dandies, a group led by fellow West Virginian Don Redman. But Berry was best known with his association with Cab Calloway, who came to think of Berry as a brother.
During the period 1934–1939, while saxophone pioneer Hawkins was playing in Europe, Berry was one of several younger tenor saxophonists, such as Budd Johnson, Ben Webster, and Lester Young, who vied for supremacy on their instrument.
Berry’s mastery of advanced harmony and his smooth, flowing solos on up-tempo tunes influenced young innovators such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Berry also took part in jam sessions at Minton’s Playhouse in New York City, which led to the development of bebop.
In 1937 and 1938, Metronome named Berry to its All-Star Band, alongside such jazz immortals as Harry James, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, and Gene Krupa.
Chu Berry died on October 31, 1941, near Conneaut Lake, Ohio, as the result of injuries he received in an automobile accident.
Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, says of Berry, “Considering the brevity of Chu’s life, and that his recording career spans a mere decade, it is remarkable that his name continues to loom large in the annals of jazz. Had he lived, there is no doubt that he would be ensconced in the jazz pantheon alongside Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. He was that good.” – compiled from online sources
