DON HILL, saxophonist, grew up in the 9th Ward of New Orleans during the Roaring Twenties. He attended Alabama State in 1939, rooming with Claude Trenier – who left college to sing with Jimmy Lunceford’s band.  Don left college in his junior year to play with Tiny Bradshaw, one of the most prominent jump-blues bandleaders of the ’30s and ’40s. Tiny led jazz-trained musicians into the developing and more commercial field that came to be known as rhythm & blues. In 1944 Don played, toured & recorded with Louis Armstrong for three years.

In 1947, he started his own band and in 1948 joined forces with his old college roommate to start The Treniers! They performed continuously for 55 years – signing with the legendary Okeh label and producing a remarkable string of killer rock ‘n roll sides, including “Rockin’ Is Our Business,” “Rockin’ On Saturday Night,” and “It Rocks, It Rolls, It Swings!” They appeared on various TV shows, including Jackie Gleason and Red Skelton, and Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin’s Colgate Comedy Hour.  They also appeared in a number of movies, including Don’t Knock the Rock and The Girl Can’t Help It, appearing with Alan Freed, Little Richard and Bill Haley. After their final engagement in Atlantic City in 2003, Claude Trenier passed on and Don Hill played for Jeanne Brei, a vocalist whom the Treniers had always invited to sit in with them.

Don was once again a founding member of yet another swingin’ band – The Speakeasy Swingers!  He has written his autobiography, “House Party Tonight: The Career of Legendary Saxophonist Don Hill.”