Huey Long

Huey Long, Singer and guitarist | 1904 - 2009. Huey Long, who died on 10 June, 2009, aged 105, was the last surviving member of the perennial American vocal group The Ink Spots. He was also a respected jazz guitarist and played with greats like Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie. He was born on 25 April, 1904, in Sealy, Texas. As a boy he made money shining shoes and with this he bought his first banjo. In the 1930s he moved to Chicago and exchanged his banjo for the guitar. He performed with various jazz bands and also did recording studio session work. Over the next few decades he worked in New York, Detroit and also on forces entertainment tours to Korea and Japan with his Huey Long Trio. One of the many groups he worked with was the Ink Spots (active since 1931), initially standing in for Charlie Fuqua on guitar while he served in the army, but joining as a bona fide member in 1944. He sang with various incarnations of the legendary group until the 1980s.