Considering the importance of phonograph records in the history of music and how easily they are scratched, it is both appropriate and important that musicians exist named both Skip Morr and Skip Moore. They should not, however, be confused with each other, each other, each other, an error that might have happened with much more regularity had Charles Skip Morr Coolidge stayed with the drums rather than switching to trombone while in high school. His sound-alike -- in name only rather than musical styles -- was Skip Moore, original drummer for surf music giants the Ventures. Morr was more of a jazz player, strictly mainstream, who came up through various West Coast dance bands and studio orchestras in the '40s before becoming associated with the Dixieland style in the '50s. One of the trombonist's best performances in the latter style was a 1953 live recording from San Francisco, in which the great soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet is fronting the band.

Morr aka Coolidge grew up in a Midwest musical family and had vocal talent as well as abilities as both a percussionist and brass player. Chicago bandleader Henry Busse featured Morr's singing on a colorful 78 recording of Rainbow 'Round the Moon in the early '30s. Morr was freshly graduated from Northwestern University during this period, and was also working in the groups of Ted Weems and Bill Hogan.

After relocating to the West Coast, the trombonist was in several top big bands led by the likes of Artie Shaw and Charlie Barnet; reissues from this period make up a large slab of the existing Morr discography, especially the Barnet band. The origin of his nickname may have something to do with his sporadic school attendance, a detail shrouded in the obscurity of his fairly low-key career. Big bands also indulged in catchy stage names for featured singers, although more often in the case of the female species. Discographer Tom Lord is one jazz scholar who became literally Morr confused as a result of the name change, creating three separate entries for Skip Morr, Charles Coolidge, and Chuck Coolidge. All are the same person. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi