History Sam Price and His Texas Bluesicians

Sammy Price (October 6, 1908 – April 14, 1992) was an American jazz and blues pianist and bandleader. He was born Samuel Blythe Price, in Honey Grove, Texas. Price is most noteworthy for his work with his own band on Decca Records, known as the Texas Bluesicians that included fellow musicians Don Stovall and Emmett Berry. The artist is equally notable for his decade long partnership with Henry “Red” Allen.

During his early career, Price was a singer in local venues in the Dallas area. Price lived and played jazz in Kansas City, Chicago and Detroit. In 1938 Price was hired by Decca Records as a session sideman on piano, assisting singers such as Trixie Smith and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Later in his life, he partnered with the Roosevelt Hotel in New York; and was the headline entertainment at the Crawdaddy Restaurant, a New Orleans themed restaurant in New York in the mid 1970s. Both Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich played with Price at this venue. in the 1980s he switched to playing in the bar of Boston’s Copley Plaza.

He died in April 1992, at the age of 83.

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