Anderson, “Buddy” (Bernard Hartwell)
Anderson, “Buddy” (Bernard Hartwell)
Anderson, “Buddy” (Bernard Hartwell), swing band trumpeter, pianist; b. Oklahoma City, Oct. 14, 1919; Kansas City, Mo., May 9, 1997. Anderson began playing violin at age seven, played trumpet in a military band in junior high school, and then worked in a high school band known as “Dud” McCauley’s Syncopators. Late in 1934 he joined a band led by bassist Louis “Ted” Armstrong in Clinton, Okla. He studied music in Quindario, Kans., and gigged in and around Kansas City with Gene Ramey’s big band. In the summer of 1938, Anderson went to Xavier Univ., New Orleans, and played in the college orchestra and dance bands. During the summer of 1939 he joined Leslie Sheffield’s Band in Oklahoma City, then resumed studies before joining Jay McShann from early 1940 into 1943. After working with other bands around Kansas City, Anderson came to N.Y. with Benny Carter, then during 1944 worked briefly with the big bands of Sabby Lewis, Roy Eldridge, and Billy Eckstine. Health problems ended his career as a trumpeter, so he took up piano, and gigged for many years in Oklahoma City, where he was also president of the musicians’ union.
—John Chilton, Lewis Porter