There is a healthy representation for this name in music history, perhaps as many as a dozen performers named Willie White showing up on assignments as varied as miscellaneous percussion, composition, and cover art. The extremely common surname of White picks up no less than five professional musicians alone from one Bethlehem, PA, family. Most famous of this brood was Harry White, a multi-instrumentalist whose specialty became trombone but who was also proficient on the cornet and supposedly the entire saxophone family. Brother Willie White apparently shared these talents, performing with territory bands of the period as both a trumpeter in the brass section and a saxophonist among the reeds. Other players in the family were pianist Eddie White -- brother of the aforementioned siblings -- and two cousins, reed players Gilbert White and Morris White, the latter doubling on piano. The family relocated to Washington, D.C., circa 1919 and established the White Brothers Orchestra, an enterprise that obviously did not fill in the white space of each White datebook since both Harry White and Willie White were also finding time to gig with the likes of the young Duke Ellington. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi