Biography
Born on 20 October 1906 in Austin, Texas, John Dudley Moore passed away on 6 January 1969 in Los Angeles, California. As the older sibling of guitarist Oscar Moore, he first took up the guitar in 1934 alongside his violinist father’s string ensemble before relocating to the west coast. There Oscar entered Nat ‘King’ Cole’s Trio while Johnny signed on with the Blazes, only to be dismissed in 1942. That dismissal prompted him to launch his own unit, the Three Blazers, which initially included bassist Eddie Williams and, for a short time, pianist Garland Finney. Finney’s departure the next year led Moore to recruit singer-pianist Charles Brown, whom he had discovered at an amateur contest, and the trio cut its first sides for the modest Atlas imprint in 1944. Between 1945 and 1948 they recorded prolifically for Exclusive, Philo/Aladdin and Modern, scoring massive successes with “Driftin’ Blues,” “Merry Christmas Baby,” “Sunny Road” and “More Than You Know” that made the Three Blazers a national presence. Oscar’s arrival in 1947 triggered mounting tensions that ended in a split, after which Moore attempted to fill Brown’s role with a series of vocal imitators. The most effective proved to be Billy Valentine, whose 1949 rendition of “Walkin’ Blues” on RCA-Victor restored the group to the R&B charts. Following their Victor tenure of 1949–50, the Three Blazers appeared on numerous Los Angeles labels yet registered hits only with the 1953 novelty “Dragnet Blues” for Modern and the somber 1955 release “Johnny Ace’s Last Letter” on Hollywood. A mid-decade reconciliation with Brown brought the original Three Blazers back together for sessions on Aladdin, Hollywood and Cenco, though by then Moore’s restrained, refined and tuneful blues guitar had fallen from favor among R&B listeners. He nevertheless shaped the approach of nearly every electric blues guitarist active in the late 1940s and early 1950s—B.B. King later placed him among his ten greatest players—and the evidence survives in his accompaniments for Ivory Joe Hunter, Floyd Dixon and Charles Brown as well as in his own trio recordings, confirming his status as one of the instrument’s unheralded masters.
Albums
