The Lawson-Haggart Jazz Band was founded in 1951 by longtime friends and bandmates trumpeter John ‘Yank’ Lawson - born on May 3, 1911, in Trenton, Missouri - and double bassist Bob Haggart - Born March 12, 1914 in New York, New York. Yank Lawson had previously spent time in Dixieland and swing bands in the 1930s and 1940s including co-founding the Bob Crosby Orchestra and playing with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. Bob Haggart recorded with Billy Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Benny Goodman. Yank Lawson and Bob Haggart met when the latter joined the Bob Crosby Orchestra in 1935, shortly after their formation. During the band’s heyday, Bob Haggart composed some of their most popular tracks including “My Inspiration”, “Big News from Winnetka”, and “What’s New”. After Crosby dissolved the orchestra in 1942, Yank Lawson and Bob Haggart went their separate ways but remained friends. Crosby brought the his orchestra back for a few reunions in the early 1950s, which inspired the formation of a new sextet, the Lawson/Haggart Jazz Band, in 1951. Over the course of four years, the band released a series of albums including Play Jelly Roll’s Jazz (1951), Play King Oliver’s Jazz (1952), College Fight Songs (1952), Blues on the River (1952), Ragtime Jamboree (1953), Windy City Jazz (1954), and Louis’ Hot 5’s and 7’s (1954). Yank Lawson and Bob Haggart spent the next decade working on separate projects before coming back together in 1968 to form the World’s Greatest Jazz Band, which they co-lead until 1978. Yank Lawson died on February 18, 1995. Bob Haggart died on December 2, 1998.
