Documenting Black Navy Bands of World War II
Primary Sources: Memoirs & Biographies

These World War II Navy band veterans have written a memoir or been the subject of a biography. Listings include the bandsman’s name & duty station as well as the relevant book.

Coltrane, John. Melody Masters, Manana Barracks, Pearl Harbor
• Porter, Lewis. John Coltrane: His Life and Music. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1999.
• Simpkins, Cuthbert Ormond. Coltrane: A Biography. Perth Amboy, NJ: Herndon House, 1975

Collette, Buddy. St. Mary’s Pre-Flight School, Moraga, CA
Collette, Buddy, with Steven Isoardi. Jazz Generations: A Life in American Music and Society. London: Continuum, 2000.

Dejan, Harold. Algiers NAS, LA; Treasure Island NAS, CA
Dejan, Harold, with Els W. Velduisen. Everything Is Lovely: A Family Portrait. Pijnacker, the Netherlands: Holland Olympia, 1989.

Gryce, G.G. UNC-Chapel Hill Pre-Flight School 2nd band
Cohan, Noal and Michael Fitzgerald. Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce, 2nd edition. Rockville, MD. Current Research in Jazz, 2014.

Kerr, Clyde. Lakefront NAS, LA; Treasure Island NAS, CA
Kennedy, Al. Chord Changes on the Chalkboard. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2002.

Marshall, Robert Louis. Sand Point, Seattle
Pikemuccini, Yolonda. I, Robert Louis Marshall. Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2009.

Parsons, James B. B-1, UNC – Chapel Hill Pre-Flight School; Manana Barracks, Pearl Harbor.
Parsons, James B. The Unfinished Oral History of Judge James Benton Parsons. Typescript. Chicago: U of Chicago Law School, DeAngelo Law School. 1986.

Royal, Marshal. St. Mary’s Pre-Flight School, Moraga, CA
Royal, Marshal, with Claire P. Gordon. Marshal Royal: Jazz Survivor. London: Cassell, 1996. St Mary’s

Watkins, Earl. St. Mary’s Pre-Flight School, Moraga, CA
Goggin, Jim. Earl Watkins: The Life of a Jazz Drummer. Victoria, Canada. Trafford P, 2005. St Mary’s

• • •

Several bandsmen tell short versions of their Navy experiences in A Little Known Legacy: The Great Lakes Experience: A Salute to African-American Navy Bandsmen at the Great Lakes Naval Base 1942-45 [Chicago, IL] [Feb. 2003]:

Carter, Robert. Lambert Field, St. Louis & B-1 Manana Barracks
Cloud, Hamilton S. Quonset Point NAS
Holt, Roger. UNC-Pre-Flight School; Manana Barracks, HA
“Von Freeman.” Barbers Point Hellcats, HA.
“George B. Salter.” Earle NAS, Colt’s Neck, NJ
“John T. Welch.” Lakefront NAS, LA

• • • 

Alton Augustus Adams‘ service as a band director in the Navy spans both World Wars; during World War II, when he was called back into service, he led a band at Guantanamo Bay as he had done in the first war. His story and that of his bands is an anamoly in virtually all respects. His story is essential to the development of bands that included African-Americans serving at regular rank.

Clague, Mark, ed.  The Memoirs of Alton Augustus Adams, Sr.: First Black Bandmaster of the United States Navy, by Alton Augusts Adams, Sr. Berkeley, U of California P, 2008.