# Saxie Dowell

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{{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](/source/Raleigh%2C_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](/source/Brunswick_Records), Lenora, Victor
| past_member_of =[Hal Kemp](/source/Hal_Kemp)
}}

'''Horace Kirby Dowell''' (May 24, 1904 – July 22, 1974), known professionally as '''Saxie Dowell''', was an American [jazz](/source/jazz) saxophonist.

==Biography==
Dowell was born in [Raleigh, North Carolina](/source/Raleigh%2C_North_Carolina), and attended the University of North Carolina, where he met [Hal Kemp](/source/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](/source/Brunswick_Records) 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](/source/Playmates_(song))".

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](/source/USS_Franklin_(CV-13))''.<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](/source/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](/source/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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Saxie Dowell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxie_Dowell) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxie_Dowell?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.