Alex Hill was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 pianist.

Hill was a child prodigy

Child prodigy

A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...

 on piano, which he learned from his mother. While studying at Shorter College

Shorter College

Shorter University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university located in Rome, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1873, it is a Christian university historically affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention....

 he met Alphonse Trent

Alphonse Trent

Alphonse "Alphonso" Trent was an American jazz pianist and territory band leader.Trent played piano since childhood and worked in local bands in Arkansas through his youth. He led his first band in the mid-1920s, possibly as early as 1923...

, and began arranging material for him. He graduated in 1922 and played in various territory band

Territory band

Territory bands were dance bands that crisscrossed specific regions of the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Beginning in the 1920s, the bands typically had 8 to 12 musicians. These bands typically played one-nighters, 6 or 7 nights a week at venues like VFW halls, Elks Lodges,...

s, including Terrence Holder

Terrence Holder

Terrence Holder was an American jazz trumpeter and territory band leader. While he did not achieve fame in his own life, he worked extensively with bands in and around Kansas City and was an important member of the city's musical life in the 1920s and 1930s.Holders played with Alphonse Trent in...

's. From 1924 to 1926 he led his own ensemble; later in 1926 he played with Speed Webb, and in 1927 he spent time with Mutt Carey

Mutt Carey

Thomas "Papa Mutt" Carey was a New Orleans jazz trumpeter.Carey was born in Hahnville, Louisiana, and moved to New Orleans with his family in his youth. His older brother Jack Carey was a trombone player and bandleader; Mutt was playing cornet in his brother's band by about 1912. Carey toured the...

's Jeffersonians and Paul Howard

Paul Howard

Paul Howard paulie is a journalist with The Irish Times on Saturday. Howard is best known as the author of the paper's Ross O'Carroll-Kelly columns. In addition, he has written a series of books about the character of Ross, a wealthy, rugby union-playing resident of Foxrock in South Dublin...

's Quality Serenaders.

Late in 1927 he relocated to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 and held a job as an arranger for the Melrose Music Publishing Company, while simultaneously arranging for the Carroll Dickerson

Carroll Dickerson

Carroll Dickerson was a Chicago and New York-based dixieland jazz violinist and bandleader, probably better known for his extensive work with Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines or his more brief work touring with King Oliver....

 Orchestra. He played with Jimmy Wade

Jimmy Wade

Jimmy Wade was an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader.Wade began leading groups in the Chicago area about 1916. He played in California and Seattle, Washington with Lucille Hegamin, and then moved with her to New York City, where they played together until 1922...

 in 1928, Jimmie Noone

Jimmie Noone

Jimmie Noone was an American jazz clarinetist.- Background :...

 in 1929, and Sammy Stewart

Sammy Stewart

Samuel Lee "Sammy" Stewart , is a former professional baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues from 1978-1987. He attended Owen High School in Asheville and Montreat College, and signed his first pro contract with the Baltimore Orioles in 1975...

 in 1930.

While on tour with Stewart he moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. There he arranged for Paul Whiteman

Paul Whiteman

Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...

, Benny Carter

Benny Carter

Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...

, Claude Hopkins

Claude Hopkins

Claude Driskett Hopkins was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.-Biography:Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University...

, Andy Kirk

Andy Kirk

Andrew Dewey Kirk was a jazz saxophonist and tubist best known as a bandleader of the "Twelve Clouds of Joy," popular during the swing era....

, Ina Ray Hutton

Ina Ray Hutton

Ina Ray Hutton was an American female leader during the Big band era, and sister to June Hutton.Hutton was born as Odessa Cowan in Chicago, Illinois of African American descent. She began dancing and singing in stage revues at the age of eight. Cowan's mother Marvel Ray was a local pianist and...

, the Mills Blue Rhythm Orchestra, and Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

. He also did charts for Fats Waller

Fats Waller

Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...

, Eddie Condon

Eddie Condon

Albert Edwin Condon , better known as Eddie Condon, was a jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in the so-called "Chicago school" of early Dixieland, he also played piano and sang on occasion....

, and Willie Bryant

Willie Bryant

Willie Bryant was an American jazz bandleader, vocalist, and disc jockey.Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Bryant grew up in Chicago and took trumpet lessons to little success. His first job in entertainment was dancing in the Whitman Sisters Show in 1926...

. Additionally, he became staff arranger for the Mills Music Company. He and Fats Waller did a show together in New York called Hello 1931, and accompanied Adelaide Hall

Adelaide Hall

Adelaide Hall was an American-born U.K.-based jazz singer and entertainer.Hall was born in Brooklyn, New York and was taught to sing by her father...

.

Hill again put together his own group in 1935, but after playing at the Savoy Ballroom

Savoy Ballroom

The Savoy Ballroom, located in Harlem, New York City, was a medium sized ballroom for music and public dancing that was in operation from March 12, 1926 to July 10, 1958. It was located between 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue....

, he disbanded the ensemble due to his tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

. He moved back to Little Rock, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

, and died in 1937 at age 30.

Most of his recordings can be found on Alex Hill 1928-34, released on CD by Timeless Records

Timeless Records

Timeless Records is a jazz record label from The Netherlands.Timeless was founded in Wageningen in 1975 by Wim Wigt. It has specialized in bebop, though it also did a subseries of important releases of Dixieland and swing recordings. As of ca...

 in 1998. It includes recordings he made with Albert Wynn

Albert Wynn

Albert Russell "Al" Wynn is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented the 4th district of Maryland from 1993 to 2008...

, Jimmy Wade

Jimmy Wade

Jimmy Wade was an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader.Wade began leading groups in the Chicago area about 1916. He played in California and Seattle, Washington with Lucille Hegamin, and then moved with her to New York City, where they played together until 1922...

, Jimmie Noone

Jimmie Noone

Jimmie Noone was an American jazz clarinetist.- Background :...

, Junie Cobb

Junie Cobb

Junius C. "Junie" Cobb was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist and bandleader.Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Cobb was competent on tenor saxophone, clarinet, banjo, piano, violin, and drums. He played with Johnny Dunn as a teenager, and after moving to Chicago he led his own ensemble in 1920-21...

, Eddie Condon

Eddie Condon

Albert Edwin Condon , better known as Eddie Condon, was a jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in the so-called "Chicago school" of early Dixieland, he also played piano and sang on occasion....

, and The Hokum Trio, in addition to 11 tunes he did as bandleader.