Hal Kemp

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Hal Kemp (March 27, 1904 – December 21, 1940) was a jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, composer, and arranger. He was born in Marion, Alabama and died in Madera, California following an auto accident. Art Jarrett took on leadership of Kemp's orchestra in 1941.

At the University of North Carolina he formed his own campus jazz group, the Carolina Club Orchestra. The band recorded for Okeh Records. He also formed a smaller seven-man combo which featured future stars John Scott Trotter, Saxie Dowell, and Skinnay Ennis. In 1927 Kemp turned leadership of the Carolina Club Orchestra over to fellow UNC student Kay Kyser and formed a professional jazz orchestra of his own based in New York City, which included Trotter, Dowell, and Ennis and trumpeters Bunny Berigan and Jack Purvis. The sound was "sweet", using muted trumpets and full clarinet tones.

One of the main reasons for the band's success was arranger John Scott Trotter. None of the trumpeters could sustain notes and play legitimate tones, so Trotter muted the trumpets and introduced staccato triplets into the charts. This gave the band a unique sound, which Johnny Mercer jokingly referred to as like a "typewriter." The clarinets played simple, sustained notes, often through megaphones.

On December 19, while driving from Los Angeles to a booking in San Francisco, his car hit another head on. Kemp suffered multiple broken ribs and a punctured lung. He developed pneumonia while in the hospital and two days later passed away.