| Herman L. "Snooks" Friedman (born February 10, 1906) began playing
drums professionally, during the summer of 1923, with a band called the
Ole Miss Jesters. In 1924, he began playing with Meyer Davis, and in 1925,
recorded with Hip Bennett's band. Snooks organized his own band, the Memphis
Stompers, in 1926. Many of the recordings, made by this band between 1928
and 1931, were released under a variety of pseudonyms, including Snooks
and His Memphis Ramblers, Snooks and His Paramount Theatre Orchestra and
Ben Friedman's Paramount Hotel Orchestra. During their tenure at the Crazy
Cat Club, in New York, the band was also known as Snooks and His Krazy Kat
Kittens, though the band is not known to have recorded under this name.
In addition to the recordings heard here, Snooks Friedman and his band provided
music for the first talking cartoon. They are also known to have appeared
in at least a few movie shorts made by Warner Brothers. With the outbreak
of World War II, Snooks broke up his band to enlist in the Navy. After the
war, he organized a new band with which he played, until his retirement
in 1972. Snooks Friedman died, in Memphis, on March 24, 1993. |
