Charlie Drayton

Charles Henderson Drayton (5 May 1919 Brooklyn, New York – 31 July 1953 Los Angeles) was an American jazz bassist who performed and recorded from the late 1930s until his death.

Career Drayton performed with artists that include Louis Jordan, Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Pete Brown, Ben Webster, Joan Edwards, Timmie Rogers, Savannah Churchill, the Basin Street Boys, Barney Bigard, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Woody Herman, Julia Lee, Jack Teagarden, Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Russell Jacquet, Marion Abernathy, The Treniers, Billy Taylor, Helen Humes, and Teddy Bunn.

Family Drayton was born May 5, 1919, in Brooklyn to George Leslie Drayton (1889–1946) and Albertha Eugena Bynoe (1885–1979). Both parents were born in Bridgetown, Barbados, and immigrated to the United States from Barbados – both arriving in the Port of New York in 1907. Drayton arrived June 7, 1907, aboard the SS Parima and Bynoe arrived October 29, 1907, aboard the SS Soldier Prince.

Charlie Drayton's grandson, Charley Drayton (born 1965), is a drummer.

Death Drayton's death certificate states that he died at the Los Angeles County General Hospital after an apparent suicide attempt from strychnine poisoning, which he had ingested at his home in South Park neighborhood of Los Angeles at 451 East 48th Street.