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Biography
Hal Kemp (March 27, 1904 – December 21, 1940) was a jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, composer, and arranger. He was born in Marion, Alabama and died in Madera, California following an auto accident. Art Jarrett took on leadership of Kemp's orchestra in 1941. His major recordings were "There's a Small Hotel", "This Year's Kisses", "Where or When", "When I'm With You", "Got a Date With an Angel" and "Three Little Fishes".
At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill he formed his own campus jazz group, the Carolina Club Orchestra. The band recorded for English Columbia and Perfect/Pathe records in 1924-5. This first group toured Europe in the summer of 1924 under the sponsorship of popular bandleader Paul Specht. Kemp returned to UNC in 1925 and put together a new edition of the Carolina Club Orchestra, featuring fellow classmates and future stars John Scott Trotter, Saxie Dowell, and Skinnay Ennis. In 1927 Kemp turned leadership of the Carolina Club Orchestra over to fellow UNC student Kay Kyser and turned professional. The band was based in New York City, and included Trotter, Dowell, and Ennis, and a few years later trumpeters Bunny Berigan and Jack Purvis joined the group. The sound was 1920s collegiate jazz. Kemp once again toured Europe in the summer of 1930. This band recorded regularly for Brunswick, English Duophone, Okeh and Melotone Records.
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