Walter Page was an acoustic bass player with the Count Basie Orchestra and part of the “All-American Rhythm Section.” Prior to his time with Basie, he was the leader of the popular territory band Walter Page’s Blue Devils. Page was born in Gallatin, Missouri on February 9, 1900.
​
Walter Page showed an interest in music from a very young age. When he was ten years old he moved to Kansas City with his mother, and it wasn’t long before young Walter could be found playing tuba and bass drum in neighborhood bands. Page took up the string bass when he was a student at Lincoln High School and later studied music education at the University of Kansas. He completed the three-year course of study at KU in one year and then took a job playing with the Bennie Moten Orchestra. He spent three years with Moten before joining Billy King’s Road Show which toured the United States through the auspices of the Theater Owner’s Booking Agency. It was in that band that Page first met bandmates Basie and Jimmy Rushing.

In 1925 Walter Page’s Blue Devils were formed in Oklahoma City and played throughout the southwest for six years before disbanding in. During that time it could be argued that the Blue Devils and Bennie Moten’s group were the two hottest bands in the region. Although he sorely wanted to, Page stated that the two bands never met head-to-head. Moten did, however, start poaching the best players from Page’s band until the leader himself broke up the Blue Devils and rejoined Moten’s ensemble.

When Moten passed away in 1935 Basie took over the band and Page played in what was dubbed the “All-American Rhythm Section” until 1942. Along with Page on bass and Basie at the piano, the engine room of the Basie Orchestra included guitarist Freddie Green and drummer Jo Jones. Page returned to Basie in 1946 for a three-year stay.

Although best known for his time with the Basie organization and as leader of the Blue Devils, Walter Page also performed as a sideman with Eddie Condon, Jimmy McPartland, Roy Eldridge, Ruby Braff, Vic Dickenson and Buck Clayton. Page died of pneumonia in New York City on December 20, 1957.

Here is a link to a 1929 recording by Walter Page’s Blue Devils:

"BLUE DEVIL BLUES"