Biography
Gene Coy, born in the United States and deceased in California during 1966, assembled his dance orchestra in Amarillo, Texas, in the mid-1920s. The lineup featured sidemen including Red Thompson, Alton Moore, Ted Manning, Clyde Durham, Ben Webster, Allen Durham, Isaiah Young, Oscar Cobb, Dick Wilson, Lester Taylor, Eddie Walker, Junior Raglin, Otto Sampson, Henry Powell, Andre Duryea, Charlie Lewis, ‘Bat’ Johnson, Tyree Johnson and his wife Ann Coy. The ensemble undertook repeated one-night stands across the southern United States, although racial restrictions kept superior venues closed to them as a Black group. By the 1940s Coy had relocated the operation to San Francisco, from which point the band concentrated on West Coast tours. Those dates soon stretched farther north and west, incorporating Canadian bookings. Never granted the chance to capture their stylish, energetic performances on record, the group nevertheless stayed a popular draw through the late 1950s.