Vassar Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was a Grammy Award- winning American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz.
Clements was born in Kinard, South Carolina, but grew up in Kissimmee, Florida. He taught himself to play the fiddle at age 7 and the first song he learned was "There's an Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor". Soon, Clements formed a local string band with two first cousins...
more
Vassar Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was a Grammy Award- winning American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz.
Clements was born in Kinard, South Carolina, but grew up in Kissimmee, Florida. He taught himself to play the fiddle at age 7 and the first song he learned was "There's an Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor". Soon, Clements formed a local string band with two first cousins, Red and Gerald. Gerald was the fiddle player and when he got married and left, Clements had to pick up the fiddle. In his early teens, he met Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys when they came to Florida to visit Clements' stepfather who knew Chubby Wise. Clements heard Wise play and was impressed.
In late 1949, when Wise left Monroe, Clements was hired as his replacement in the Blue Grass Boys where he remained for seven years.
He didn't always earn his living playing music. In the mid-1960s he was employed briefly at the Kennedy Space...
less
