Peter Packay, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetPeter Packay
Belgian jazz composer and trumpet player
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Brussels metropolitan area, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium
About Peter Packay
- Pierre Paquet, better known as Peter Packay (August 8, 1904, Brussels - December 26, 1965, Westende) was a Belgian jazz trumpeter, arranger, and composer. Packay lived with his family in China for part of his childhood, but returned to Belgium in 1912.
- As a teenager, he was crippled in one arm by an accident, but decided to learn to play trumpet anyway at age 20, joining the Varsity Ramblers.
- He cofounded a band called Red Beans with David Bee and served as its principal composer of originals; Bee left the group and was replaced by Robert De Kers, and Packay remained its leader until its dissolution in 1929.
- In the 1930s he formed another group, Packay's Swing Academy, which played with Coleman Hawkins among others.
- He also did arrangements for bandleader Billy Arnold. As a composer, Packay's works included "Alabama Mamma", "The Blue Duke", "Dixie Melody", and "Lullaby for a Mexican Alligator".
- Following World War II he gave up performance to concentrate on composition and arrangement.
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