Charles Cyril "Charlie" Creath (December 30, 1890,
Ironton, MissouriIronton is a city in Iron County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,471 at the 2000 census and is 12 Miles South Of Belgrade. It is the county seat of Iron County.-Geography:Ironton is located at...
- October 23, 1951,
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
) was an American
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
trumpeter, saxophonist, accordionist, and bandleader.
Creath played in traveling circuses and in theater bands in the decade of the 1900s, and moved back to
St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
around 1919. There he led bands playing on the Streckfus company's
riverboatA riverboat is a ship designed for inland navigation. These vessels are usually less sturdy than ships built for the open seas, with limited navigational and rescue equipment, as they do not have to survive the high winds or large waves characteristic on large lakes, seas or oceans. They can...
s traveling on the
Mississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
between New Orleans and St.
Charles Cyril "Charlie" Creath (December 30, 1890,
Ironton, MissouriIronton is a city in Iron County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,471 at the 2000 census and is 12 Miles South Of Belgrade. It is the county seat of Iron County.-Geography:Ironton is located at...
- October 23, 1951,
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
) was an American
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
trumpeter, saxophonist, accordionist, and bandleader.
Creath played in traveling circuses and in theater bands in the decade of the 1900s, and moved back to
St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
around 1919. There he led bands playing on the Streckfus company's
riverboatA riverboat is a ship designed for inland navigation. These vessels are usually less sturdy than ships built for the open seas, with limited navigational and rescue equipment, as they do not have to survive the high winds or large waves characteristic on large lakes, seas or oceans. They can...
s traveling on the
Mississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
between New Orleans and St. Louis. His ensembles were so popular that he had several bands under his own name at one time in the 1920s. He co-led a group on the
SS Capitol in 1927 with
Fate MarableFate Marable was a jazz pianist and bandleader.Marable was born in Paducah, Kentucky, and learned piano from his mother. At age 17, he began playing on the steam boats plying the Mississippi River...
. Late in the 1920s he suffered from an extended illness, and primarily played saxophone and accordion instead of trumpet afterwards. He and Marable played together again from 1935 to 1938, and toward the end of the decade Creath opened a
nightclubA nightclub is a drinking, dancing and entertainment venue which does its primary business after dark. People who frequent nightclubs are known as clubbers...
in Chicago. He worked in an airplane manufacturing plant during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and retired in 1945. His last years were plagued with illness.
Aside from his brother-in-law,
Zutty SingletonArthur James "Zutty" Singleton was an influential American early jazz drummer.Singleton was born in Bunkie, Louisiana and raised in New Orleans. He was working professionally with Steve Lewis by 1915. He served with the United States Navy in World War I...
, members of Creath's bands included
Ed AllenEd Allen was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist.Allen's family moved to St. Louis, Missouri when he was seven; he began playing piano at age ten and settled on cornet soon after. He worked as a truck driver in his teens and played in military bands...
,
Pops FosterGeorge Murphy "Pops" Foster was a jazz musician best known for his vigorous playing of the string bass. He also played the tuba and trumpet professionally....
,
Jerome Don PasquallJerome Don Pasquall was an American jazz reed player.Pasquall grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and played early in his life on the mellophone in brass bands. He served in the Army in 1918 in the 10th Cavalry Band, and picked up clarinet during this time...
, and
Lonnie JohnsonAlonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was an American blues and jazz singer/guitarist and songwriter who pioneered the role of jazz guitar and is recognized as the first to play single-string guitar solos.-Early career:...
. He recorded as a leader for
Okeh RecordsOkeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918; from the late 1920s on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...
between 1924 and 1927.