{{short description|American songwriter}} {{more citations needed|date=March 2020}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Musicians --> | name = Saxie Dowell | image = | background = solo_singer | birth_name =Horace Kirby Dowell | birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|5|24}} | birth_place =Raleigh, North Carolina | death_date = {{death date and age|1974|7|22 |1904|5|24 |mf=yes}} | death_place =Scottsdale, Arizona | genre = Jazz | occupation = Musician | instrument =Saxophone, clarinet | years_active =1920s–1950s | label =Brunswick, Lenora, Victor | past_member_of =Hal Kemp }}
'''Horace Kirby Dowell''' (May 24, 1904 – July 22, 1974), known professionally as '''Saxie Dowell''', was an American jazz saxophonist.
==Biography== Dowell was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, and attended the University of North Carolina, where he met Hal Kemp. He joined Kemp's orchestra as a reed player (tenor saxophone, clarinet, and flute) and vocalist in the fall of 1925. Dowell composed "I Don't Care", which was recorded by Kemp for Brunswick in 1928. When the band's style changed in the early 1930s to that of a dance band, Dowell became the group's comedic vocalist for novelty songs. After "Three Little Fishies" became a hit in 1939, Dowell was involved in a legal dispute with lyricists Josephine Carringer and Bernice Idins. In 1940 he wrote the song "Playmates".
Dowell left Kemp in started a big band in 1940.<ref name="Lee">{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=William F. |title=American Big Bands |url=https://archive.org/details/americanbigbands00leew |url-access=registration |date=2005 |publisher=Hal Leonard |isbn=0-634-08054-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanbigbands00leew/page/253 253]–254 |edition=1st}}</ref><ref name="Simon">{{cite book |last1=Simon |first1=George T. |title=The Big Bands |year=1981 |url=https://archive.org/details/bigbands00simo_0 |url-access=registration |publisher=Schirmer Books |isbn=0-02-872430-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bigbands00simo_0/page/29 29], 289–290, 476 |edition=4th}}</ref> During World War II he was drafted and served as a bandleader aboard an aircraft carrier, the ''U.S.S. Franklin''.<ref name="Lee" /><ref name="Simon" /> The band survived a bombing attack by Japanese forces, then performed while the wreckage was cleaned up.<ref name="Simon" /> He wrote and sang the novelty song "Three Little Fishies"<ref name="Lee" /><ref name="Simon" /> and recorded for Brunswick, Sonora, and Victor.<ref name="Lee" /> Around 1946 he led a naval air station band with 14-year-old Keely Smith as a singer. After the war he reunited his orchestra, performing mostly in Chicago. In 1949 he became a disc jockey for WGN radio in Chicago. He retired in the late 1950s and moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. He worked as a disc jockey part-time for KTAR in Phoenix during his retirement.
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowell, Saxie}} Category:1904 births Category:1974 deaths Category:Jazz musicians from North Carolina Category:Musicians from Raleigh, North Carolina Category:20th-century American singers Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:American jazz singers Category:American jazz songwriters Category:American male songwriters Category:American male jazz musicians Category:20th-century American jazz composers Category:20th-century American male composers