Walter Page

Blues musician Walter Page was born in Gallatin, MO, in 1900. When he was in his 20s he joined Bennie Moten's orchestra. In 1925 he formed his own band, Walter Page's Blue Devils, which became one of the most popular and influential blues "swing bands". The band included such blues legends as Hot Lips Page, Buster Smith, Lester Young, Count Basie and Jimmy Rushing. The Blue Devils didn't record much--they only put out two singles--and its top members left to join Moten's band, which Page himself finally did in 1931. He eventually joined Count Basie and His Orchestra, and in the late 1940s worked in New York City with such blues icons as Billie Holiday. Page stayed in the New York blues scene, and died in that city in 1957.