TATE, ERSKINE

TATE, ERSKINE. Jazz bandleader (19 December 1895 in Memphis, Tennessee; 17 December 1978 in Chicago, Illinois). He came from a musical family; his father was a music teacher, and his brother James became a professional musician. He obtained his musical education in the public schools of Memphis, Tennessee, and at the Mendelssohn Conservatory of Music and the Columbia School of Music, both in Chicago, Illinois. He settled in Chicago about 1913. Soon thereafter he began playing violin in local theater...