Ernie Carson


Ernie Carson was an American Dixieland jazz revival cornetist, pianist, and singer. He was born in Portland, Oregon.
Carson played trumpet from elementary school and at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon. He was introduced to Dixieland music by listening to Monte Ballou's Castle Jazz Band through the bathroom wall at the Liberty Theater in Portland as a teenager. He ended up playing with the Castle Jazz Band in the mid-1950s prior to a stint in the U.S. Marines. Following this he worked in Los Angeles with Dave Wierbach, Jig Adams, Ray Bauduc, Pat Yankee, and Turk Murphy, and led several of his own groups from the 1970s, including the Capital City Jazz Band and a new version of the Castle Jazz Band. After more than twenty years of playing based in Atlanta, he moved back to Oregon in 1995. He died in 2012 in Portland, Oregon.

Discography

As leader

Ernie Carson and His Capital City Jazz Band Ole Oregon Ern Pretty Little Lady from Beaumont, Texas At the Hooker's Ball Pink Elephants Southern Comfort Christmas at the Castle Wher'm I Gonna Live? Every Man a King Old Bones One Beer
  • ''If I Had a Talking Picture''

As sideman

Live at Earthquake McGoon's with Turk Murphy