Lee Gaines

Otho Lee Gaines, born April 21, 1914, in Buena Vista, Mississippi, was an American jazz singer, lyricist, and Broadway performer who died on July 15, 1987.

Gaines began his musical life as a bass singer during his high school years in Mississippi. In 1933 he formed a vocal quartet while attending Langston University, and by 1937 he had completed a tour of South America and returned to the United States. He went on to become a founding member of the Delta Rhythm Boys, a group that reached its greatest popularity during the 1940s and 1950s. Over the course of that period, the Delta Rhythm Boys recorded alongside a wide range of prominent artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Jimmy Lunceford, Charlie Barnet, Fred Astaire, Ruth Brown, and Les Paul.

Beyond his work as a performer, Gaines contributed to the jazz songbook as a lyricist. He wrote the lyrics for two Billy Strayhorn compositions that became jazz standards: "Take the 'A' Train" and "Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin'."

In 1945, Gaines appeared on Broadway in the musical Memphis Bound!, adding a stage credit to his career in jazz and recording.

The Delta Rhythm Boys relocated to Europe in the 1950s. Gaines eventually settled in Finland, where he had been living for a year at the time of his death from cancer in 1987. He is buried in Maunulan uurnalehto, an urn cemetery in Helsinki, in section 39, lot 109. Gaines was married to Muriel Gaines, a calypso singer and former Cotton Club dancer.