Happy Caldwell

{{More citations needed|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Happy Caldwell | image = | image_size = | landscape =  | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Albert W. Caldwell | alias = | birth_date = {{birth date|1903|07|25}} | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, United States | origin = | death_date = {{death date and age|1978|12|29|1903|07|25}} | death_place = New York City, United States | genre = Jazz | occupation = Instrumentalist | instrument = Clarinet, tenor saxophone | years_active = 1918-1978 | label = | associated_acts = Mamie Smith, Elmer Snowden, Thomas Morris, Willie Gant, Cliff Jackson, Louis Armstrong, Vernon Andrade, Tiny Bradshaw, The Happy Pals, Charlie Gaines, Jimmy Rushing | website =  }}

'''Albert W. "Happy" Caldwell''' (sometimes incorrectly spelled '''Cauldwell''') (July 25, 1903 in Chicago – December 29, 1978 in New York City)<ref name="LarkinGE">{{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|page=392/3}}</ref> was an American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist.

Caldwell began on clarinet at age 16,<ref name="LarkinGE"/> playing in the Eighth Illinois Regimental Band and soon after in an Army band. He studied to be a pharmacist but eventually gave up his medicinal studies for jazz.

He worked with Bernie Young early in the 1920s in Chicago,<ref name="LarkinGE"/> where he recorded for the first time in 1923. Around this time he also began doubling on tenor saxophone.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> In the middle of the 1920s he played with Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds, Bobby Brown's Syncopaters, Elmer Snowden, Billy Fowler, Thomas Morris, Willie Gant, and Cliff Jackson.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> In 1929, he recorded with Louis Armstrong.<ref name="LarkinGE"/>

In the 1930s, Caldwell played with Vernon Andrade, Tiny Bradshaw, and Louis Metcalfe,<ref name="LarkinGE"/> and led his own band, the Happy Pals, in the middle of the decade. He played at Minton's in New York City for a short time, then moved to Philadelphia, where he played with Eugene Slappy and Charlie Gaines. He returned to New York and put together a new ensemble in the 1940s, continuing to work in small settings for several decades. In the 1970s, he played with Jimmy Rushing, including on international tours.

==References== ;Footnotes {{Reflist}}

;General references *Eugene Chadbourne, [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p61760/biography|pure_url=yes}} Happy Caldwell] at AllMusic

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caldwell, Happy}} Category:1903 births Category:1978 deaths Category:American jazz clarinetists Category:American jazz saxophonists Category:American male saxophonists Category:20th-century American saxophonists Category:20th-century American male musicians Category:American male jazz musicians Category:Harlem Blues and Jazz Band members