Oscar Moore
Oscar Moore (December 25, 1916 – October 8, 1981) was an American swing jazz guitarist.
Moore was an integral part of the Nat King Cole Trio for a decade, from 1937 to 1947, appearing on most of Cole's records during that period. A superb and influential guitarist, Moore was himself influenced by Charlie Christian.Barney Kessel once said that Moore practically created the role of the jazz guitarist in small combos. He also recorded with Lionel Hampton, Art Tatum (1941), the Capitol Jazzmen, and Lester Young. Moore was voted top guitarist of 1945, 1946, and 1947 in the Down Beat readers' poll.
Unfortunately, Moore's post-Cole career was not very successful. He played with his brother Johnny Moore in the Three Blazers from 1947 to the mid-1950s, after which the group declined in popularity following the departure of pianist/singer Charles Brown. Moore also recorded three records for the Verve and Tampa labels during 1953 and 1954. After that he was outside of music with the exception of one Cole tribute album in 1965. Eventually he left music altogether and settled in Los Angeles, where he worked as a bricklayer.
Oscar Moore (novelist)
Oscar Moore (23 March 1960 – 12 September 1996) was a British journalist and the author of one novel, A Matter of Life and Sex, published in 1991 originally under the pseudonym Alec F. Moran (an anagram for roman à clef). He grew up in London and was educated at the independent The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, going on to read English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating in 1982. He worked as a journalist and critic, under his own name and various pseudonyms, to such magazines as Time Out, I-D, The Times, Punch, The Evening Standard, and The Fred Magazine (in which his novel was first serialised). He was editor of The Business of Film magazine during the mid-1980s, and served as editor of the journal Screen International from 1991 until his death.
A Matter of Life and Sex is an autobiographical novel recounting the coming of age of a gay man, Hugo Harvey, who engages in sex from a young age and later, during college, works at least part-time as a prostitute, contracting HIV/AIDS in the mid-1980s before the advent of effective anti-HIV drugs. The novel describes the protagonist's relationships with his family (most significantly with his mother), his school friends, his casual sex mates, and with other friends battling HIV/AIDS. Moore himself has been described as "handsome, bright, witty, and gay," and worked occasionally as a male escort in addition to his magazine work. He lived with HIV for the last 13 years of his life, and from 1994 to 1996 wrote a regular column for The Guardian entitled "PWA (Person With AIDS)." Moore lost his sight owing to his HIV infection and died of AIDS-related illness in 1996 at the age of 36. A book collecting his "PWA" columns was published a month after his death. A stage adaptation was produced in London in 2001.
Moore, Oscar Filmography
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1951, role: actor , character name: Himself
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1951, role: actor , character name: Himself
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1951, role: actor , character name: Himself
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1948, role: actor , character name: Himself
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1946, role: actor , character name: Himself
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1946, role: actor , character name: Himself - Guitarist
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1945, role: actor , character name: Himself - Guitarist
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1944, role: actor , character name: King Cole Trio Member
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1944, role: actor , character name: Himself
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1943, role: actor , character name: Member of The King Cole Trio
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1943, role: actor , character name: Trio Member
Oscar Moore
ALBUMS
- Swing Guitars released: 1955
Born: 1916-12-25
Died: 1981-10-08
