Earle Warren

Earle Warren

Earle Warren (July 1, 1914 – June 4, 1994) was an alto saxophonist and occasional singer with Count Basie. He was born in Springfield, Ohio. He played lead alto saxophone in the Basie orchestra throughout its formative years and its heyday from 1937 to the end of the 1940s. After the break-up of Basie's band in 1949, he worked with former Basie trumpeter Buck Clayton. Warren played rock'n roll in Alan Freed's Christmas Jubilee, December 1959, the last big show before a payola scandal put an end to Freed's career. Warren appeared in Born to Swing, the 1970s film about Basie. In his later years Warren performed often at the West End jazz club at 116th and Broadway in New York City, leading a band called The Countsmen, which featured former Basie band member Dicky Wells on trombone and Peck Morrison on double bass. He lived part of the time in Switzerland, where he fathered a child with a younger woman.

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