Frankie Newton – born William Frank Newton on January 4, 1906 in Emory, Virginia – was a jazz trumpeter whose career and recordings are often sorely overlooked in many jazz circles. He began his professional career by playing in several bands in the 1920s and 1930s including those led by Elmer Snowden, Bessie Smith (on her final recordings in 1933), Fess Johnson, Andy Kirk, Sam Woodling, Chick Webb, and others. Apart from his work with those artists, he also formed his own short-lived groups including Frankie Newton and Hi Uptown Serenaders (1937), Frankie Newton and His Orchestra (1939, 1941), the Frank Newton Quintet (1939), and Frank Newton and His Café Society Orchestra (1939). He also accompanied Billie Holiday in 1939 during her “Strange Fruit” sessions. He continued his busy pace in the 1940s as a member of Lucky Millinder and Pete Brown’s orchestras as well as his work with pianist James P. Johnson, clarinetist Edmond Hall, and Drummer Sid Catlett. As a recording artist, Frankie Newton recorded some sessions as a leader, with many of those recordings ending up on a double CD collection The Story of a Forgotten Jazz Trumpeter (2002). Frankie Newton died on March 11, 1954.
