Earle Howard (musician)
Earle "Nappy" Howard was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, guitarist, and vocalist.
Career
Howard was raised in New York City and went to the same high school as Fats Waller. He belonged to a youth band that included Benny Carter, Charlie Irvis, and Benny Morton.He led bands in the 1920s, including one with Geechie Fields and Johnny Russell, and later performed at Strand Danceland, New York, with a band that included saxophonists Fernando Arbello and Pete Brown, before accompanying Bill Benford.
In 1930, he led a big band in Boston, and spent the next decade as a musical director and performing in clubs in New York, with residencies at the Saratoga Club, the Savoy Ballroom and in the Blackbirds revue, played with Leon Abbey, and toured in South America. He moved to Europe in the 1950s.