Biography
Duke Groner stood as something of a fixture on the Chicago jazz scene, though his roots traced back to Oklahoma and a household steeped in music. His father handled banjo and guitar, his mother supplied vocals, and his sister commanded the piano. A handful of violin lessons early on struck him as thoroughly disagreeable. By the time he reached high school he was already supplying piano accompaniment at dances. A scholarship carried him to Wiley College in Texas, where he sang with the college quartet as well as a campus band. After graduation he took a vocalist post with the Nat Towles band. Buddy Tate, the accomplished tenor saxophonist who had shared both college days and the Towles roster, recalled him as “a house-stopper...Duke used to sing...and women would just fall out.”
Following several years of strenuous effort that yielded scant financial reward, Groner found himself among a group of Towles sidemen spirited away to New York by Horace Henderson. The contingent also featured trombonist Henry Coker, trumpeters N. R. Bates and Money Johnson, and tenor saxophonist Bob Dorsey. The ensemble filled week-long engagements at the Apollo Theater and the Savoy Ballroom before Henderson dismissed every member, stranding them all in New York. Groner refused to return to Towles, as some of his colleagues eventually did. He remained in the city and became house singer at Minton’s alongside Betty Roche. The club’s resident group featured formidable players, among them Thelonious Monk at the piano and Kenny Clarke on drums. Groner later regarded this stretch as one of the most formative chapters of his career, even though it required the awkward duty of rousing Monk at the end of each intermission.
Henderson eventually repaired the situation by securing Groner a several-month engagement with the Jimmy Lunceford band, after which Groner returned to Chicago. He rejoined Henderson in 1942, only for the association to end when Uncle Sam drafted nearly the entire ensemble. From his Chicago base he began collaborating with tenor saxophonist Buster Bennett, organist Wild Bill Davis, and the unit known as Jelly Holt and His Four Blazers. Sometime in 1942 he took up the bass despite an abiding aversion to the instrument. “I use to laugh at the bass players and ask them why they didn't learn to play a flute,” he remarked during archival interviews conducted for the Chicago Jazz Institute. He soon recognized that, cumbersome though it was to transport the instrument, a capable bassist received steadier offers than a vocalist. Toward the close of the 1940s he assembled his first leader trio, enlisting pianist Horace Palm and guitarist Emmett Spicer. Through the 1950s he worked with Kirk Stuart on piano, Hurley Ramey on guitar, and Wallace Burton on saxophone. Sideman appearances included stints with the Four Blazes and the traditional-jazz group led by Jim Beebe. As his health gradually declined he was eventually moved to a nursing home, where fellow musicians, fond of him, presented monthly concerts.
Following several years of strenuous effort that yielded scant financial reward, Groner found himself among a group of Towles sidemen spirited away to New York by Horace Henderson. The contingent also featured trombonist Henry Coker, trumpeters N. R. Bates and Money Johnson, and tenor saxophonist Bob Dorsey. The ensemble filled week-long engagements at the Apollo Theater and the Savoy Ballroom before Henderson dismissed every member, stranding them all in New York. Groner refused to return to Towles, as some of his colleagues eventually did. He remained in the city and became house singer at Minton’s alongside Betty Roche. The club’s resident group featured formidable players, among them Thelonious Monk at the piano and Kenny Clarke on drums. Groner later regarded this stretch as one of the most formative chapters of his career, even though it required the awkward duty of rousing Monk at the end of each intermission.
Henderson eventually repaired the situation by securing Groner a several-month engagement with the Jimmy Lunceford band, after which Groner returned to Chicago. He rejoined Henderson in 1942, only for the association to end when Uncle Sam drafted nearly the entire ensemble. From his Chicago base he began collaborating with tenor saxophonist Buster Bennett, organist Wild Bill Davis, and the unit known as Jelly Holt and His Four Blazers. Sometime in 1942 he took up the bass despite an abiding aversion to the instrument. “I use to laugh at the bass players and ask them why they didn't learn to play a flute,” he remarked during archival interviews conducted for the Chicago Jazz Institute. He soon recognized that, cumbersome though it was to transport the instrument, a capable bassist received steadier offers than a vocalist. Toward the close of the 1940s he assembled his first leader trio, enlisting pianist Horace Palm and guitarist Emmett Spicer. Through the 1950s he worked with Kirk Stuart on piano, Hurley Ramey on guitar, and Wallace Burton on saxophone. Sideman appearances included stints with the Four Blazes and the traditional-jazz group led by Jim Beebe. As his health gradually declined he was eventually moved to a nursing home, where fellow musicians, fond of him, presented monthly concerts.