{{short description|American jazz drummer and bandleader (c. 1895–1957)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Curtis Mosby | genre = Jazz | instrument = Drums | occupation = Jazz drummer and businessman | birth_place = [[Kansas City]], [[Missouri]] | death_date = June 25, 1957 | death_place = [[San Francisco]], [[California]] }}
'''Curtis J. Mosby''' (July 7, 1895 (or 1892)<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Wintz|first1=Cary D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4CGpAgAAQBAJ&q=Curtis+Mosby+born&pg=PA92|title=The Harlem Renaissance in the American West: The New Negro's Western Experience|last2=Glasrud|first2=Bruce A.|date=2012-05-22|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-64911-0|language=en}}</ref> in [[Kansas City, Missouri]] – June 25, 1957 in San Francisco) was an American jazz drummer, bandleader, and businessman.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bryant|first1=Clora|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ctNSi1g34CgC&q=Curtis+Mosby&pg=PA33|title=Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles|last2=Collette|first2=Buddy|last3=Green|first3=William|last4=Isoardi|first4=Steve|last5=Young|first5=Marl|date=1999-08-31|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22098-0|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=McCarthy|first=Albert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BaYxi6ZuSAC&q=Curtis+Mosby|title=Big Band Jazz|date=1983|publisher=Peerage Books|isbn=978-0-907408-70-3|language=en}}</ref>
== Biography == Mosby toured with the Tennessee Ten in the 1910s, and also led his own ensemble in Chicago. He then moved to California early in the 1920s, where he opened a [[record store]] and then toured with [[Mamie Smith]]. He also led a band called the Blue Blowers in California and appeared with them in the 1929 film ''[[Music Hath Harms]]''. He took an extended residency in 1924 at Solomon's Dance Pavilion in Los Angeles; this ensemble recorded privately, and some of these cuts have survived. The band recorded for [[Columbia Records]] in 1927, and included [[Jake Porter]], [[Les Hite]], and [[Henry Starr]] as sidemen. In 1927 they played at the Bronx Palm Gardens and in 1928 at the Lincoln Theater.
Mosby opened his own nightclub, the Apex, in 1928, and his band appeared in the films ''Thunderbolt'' and [[King Vidor]]'s ''[[Hallelujah! (1929 film)|Hallelujah]]'' the next year. Late in 1929 a police raid shut the club down, but he reopened after an acquittal soon after. He opened another club in San Francisco at the end of 1930. He went bankrupt in 1931, and moved to San Francisco. Over the course of the 1930s he opened several clubs, not all of them successful, along the California coastline; musicians who appeared in his bands included [[Lawrence Brown (jazz trombonist)|Lawrence Brown]], [[Marshal Royal]], [[Wilbert Baranco]], [[Baron Moorehead]], and [[Buck Clayton]].
Mosby and [[Leon Hefflin, Sr.|Leon Hefflin Sr.]] financed and produced the ''Sweet N' Hot'' musical featuring [[Dorothy Dandridge]] and a cast of 50, at the [[Mayan Theater|Mayan theatre]] in Los Angeles in 1944.<ref>"''Sweet'n Hot'' Reveals Promise in Mayan Debut" by John L. Scott ''Los Angeles Times'' January 27, 1944</ref> He also eventually has his 15-piece band as part of the production after reviews made suggestion. It successfully runs nightly for eleven weeks.
His successful Club Alabam featured [[Harlan Leonard]] in 1943, [[Roy Milton]] in 1944, and [[Johnny Otis]] in 1945, all in succession. He was jailed for [[tax evasion]] from 1947 to 1949 and lost control of his clubs; after serving his time, he reopened some of them and then permanently moved to San Francisco. In 1947, Leon Hefflin Sr. took over Club Alabam and renamed it the Congo Club.<ref>"Alabam Becomes Club Congo" Article ''Los Angeles Sentinel'', December 25, 1947</ref>
He declared bankruptcy in the late 1940s, but he had hidden the part ownership of Club Alabam and other assets from the creditors and bankruptcy court. As a result he served a short prison term.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gioia|first=Ted|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-b1Qmta2wsC&q=Curtis+Mosby&pg=PA9|title=West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960|date=October 1998|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-21729-4|language=en}}</ref>
==References== ;Footnotes {{Reflist}}
;General references *[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p508185/biography|pure_url=yes}} Curtis Mosby] at [[Allmusic]] *Howard Rye, "Curtis Mosby". ''[[The New Grove|Grove Jazz]]'' online.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosby, Curtis}} [[Category:1890s births]] [[Category:1957 deaths]] [[Category:American jazz drummers]] [[Category:American jazz bandleaders]] [[Category:Jazz musicians from Missouri]] [[Category:20th-century American drummers]] [[Category:American male drummers]] [[Category:20th-century American male musicians]] [[Category:American male jazz musicians]] [[Category:Drummers from Missouri]]