- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJames Wesley Miley
- Nicknames
- Bub Miley
- King of the Plunger Mute
- James Wesley "Bubber" Miley was an American early jazz trumpet and cornet player.
Bubber Miley was the master of the plunger mute. His growling, drunken wah-wah sounding trumpet playing was largely responsible for Duke Ellington's early success and was the most prominent voice in Duke's bands throughout the years of 1926 to 1928. Born in South Carolina, he grew up in New York and played professionally starting in 1920. In 1921, he took over Johnny Dunn's spot in Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds, and toured and recorded with her off and on until 1923. Miley joined banjoist Elmer Snowden's Washingtonians in 1923 and stayed on when Duke Ellington took over. Miley was influenced by Joe Oliver, but developed his own distinctive style of playing with mutes and derbys. Miley co-wrote "East St. Louis Toodle-OO" and "Black and Tan Fantasy" and starred on many of Ellington's recordings during the years 1926 to 1928. Miley's alcoholism made him an unreliable band member, which led Duke to fire him in 1929. He went on to play with Zutty Singleton and toured France with the Noble Sissle Orchestra in 1930.
Bubber played in a musical review in 1931, but died the following year of tuberculosis.- IMDb Mini Biography By: onlooker
- In June 1931, Bubber made his final recordings. Six months later, in January 1932, he and his band were in their opening week, as the feature of "Harlem Scandals," when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He entered the hospital April 1932 and died about a month later on 20th May, he was only 29 years old.
- On the road in Chicago with Mamie's group, Bubber dropped in to listen to Joe King Oliver's band and came under the influence of this New Orleans cornet legend. Nightly, Bubber returned to absorb Oliver's use of mutes and thrill to Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. In this way his playing took on essential elements of the New Orleans tradition, especially the blues. Miley pioneered the use of the straight and the plunger mute in combination, fusing two of Oliver's techniques.
- At the age of six, he and his family moved to New York City where, as a child, he occasionally sang for money on the streets.
- His family was predisposed to encourage his musical development; his father was an amateur guitar player and his sisters performed as a professional vocal group (the South Carolina Trio).
- Bubber Miley had a profound influence on his successors and his style is emulated to this day. His plunger mute style was passed down in the Ellington orchestra to Cootie Wlilliams, Ray Nance and Rex Stewart. For Duke Ellington and members of his band, Bubber's playing style was a revelation. In fact, without Bubber Miley's trumpet and the compositions he wrote, it is arguable whether the jazz world would have ever regarded Duke Ellington's name with any significance, at all.
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