Edgar Mosely

Drummer Edgar Mosley (1895-1962) was born in Algiers, Louisiana, and was the younger brother of drummer John Baptiste Mosley. After moving from the West Bank to Tremé in 1923, Edgar studied with Kid Howard and began his professional career as a bass drummer with Howard’s marching bands in 1926, inaugurating a relationship that lasted until 1943, when Mosley moved to California. During that time Mosley also played with Kid Rena’s, Henry Allen’s, and Chris Kelly’s brass bands, as well as in dance bands playing a trap set with Kid Rena. In the 1930s he played on occasion with the Eureka Brass Band, when he was not traveling with Kid Howard. He recorded with George Lewis in 1943 but spent most of his time after that in California, where he was musically inactive until 1954, when Paul Barnes enticed him to come out of retirement for a time.