Biography
Because his most consequential jazz recordings date from the 1920s, it is unexpected that Chauncey Morehouse remained active on drums until the early 1970s. Raised in Chambersburg, PA, he took up the instrument at an early age and performed both with his school orchestra and alongside his father, who accompanied silent films on piano. While still in high school he led the Versatile Five in 1919; three years later he joined Paul Specht, remaining until 1924 and traveling with the band to London, where they made records in 1923. Widely regarded as one of the decade’s most accomplished technicians, Morehouse belonged to Jean Goldkette’s Orchestra from 1925 to 1927, spent part of 1927 in the short-lived yet celebrated Adrian Rollini ensemble alongside Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer, and worked regularly with Don Voorhees from 1928 to 1929. Throughout the 1925–29 period he contributed to numerous jazz sessions, appearing with Goldkette, Trumbauer, Bix and his Gang, Red Nichols, the Dorsey Brothers, Joe Venuti, and others. In 1929 he shifted to studio percussion work and for the next four decades concentrated on radio, television, and recording-studio assignments. He continued to update his approach, forming an unconventional group in 1938 that featured chromatically tuned percussion instruments of his own design, with Stan King substituting on conventional drums. Apart from occasional festival appearances after he left the studios in the 1970s, Morehouse remained largely removed from jazz circles and was remembered by few beyond collectors of 1920s recordings. Under his own name he led three Dixieland-oriented titles in 1937 and, the following year, four selections with a fourteen-piece ensemble that highlighted his percussion inventions.