Al Casey

Albert Aloysius Casey (September 15, 1915 – September 11, 2005), known professionally as Al Casey, was an American jazz guitarist who was a member of Fats Waller‘s band during the 1930s and early 1940s.

Casey was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City and studied guitar.

He was a child prodigy who first played violin, then switched to ukulele. He began playing guitar in 1930 and met Fats Waller in 1933. The following year, at the age of eighteen, he became a member of Waller’s band, making many recordings with the band, and he is known for having played the solo in “Buck Jumpin'”. After Waller’s death in 1943, he led his own trio. For two consecutive years in the 1940s, he was voted best guitarist in Esquiremagazine.

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