FRANKIE AND BOYD LEE DUNLOP - BMHOF CLASS OF 2012

Piano Player Boyd Lee Dunlop, was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on June 20, 1926. His family moved to Buffalo, New York, when he was a young child to be with his aunt, who was a violinist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. 

For years Dunlop worked in Buffalo’s steel mills and rail yards, yet his calling was the piano. Boyd started playing the piano at age 9 and he played in the clubs around Buffalo, including the Colored Musicians Club. Boyd toured with Billie Holiday.

Dunlop gave his younger brother, Frankie Dunlop, his first drum lesson. Dunlop recalls, “We used the thin wood from the back of a chair as our sticks.” Younger brother Frankie went on to find fame as a drummer, playing with Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Big Jay McNeely, Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson and many other jazz greats, recording nearly one hundred sides during his career.

Boyd Lee Dunlop’s trajectory followed a different course. According to Tom Lord’s Jazz Discography, Boyd Lee appeared on just two recording sessions—one led by saxophonist Moe Koffman in 1948 which produced “Bop Lop”, “Rockin’ with the Bop”, “Main Stems Bopportunity” and “Boppin’ for Sid”, which also featured BMHOF Inductee Elvin Shepherd. Frankie Dunlop also appeared on these four early recordings. These were originally recorded on 78 on the Main Stem Records label and were re-pressed in 1952, again on 78, on the Danish Label, Baronet. 

Boyd Lee was also featured on a 1953 recording session led by Big Jay McNeely which produced the single sides “3-D”, “Texas Turkey”, “Nervous, Man Nervous” and “Rock Candy”. These recordings were originally pressed on 45 and 78 on the Federal label. 

Until 2011, these were the only recordings you could hear from Boyd Lee Dunlop. He enjoyed a career resurgence after being “rediscovered” in a Buffalo nursing home at age 85 by freelance photographer Brendan Bannon. Boyd recorded 2 CDs, “Boyd’s Blues” in 2011 and “The Lake Reflections” in 2012. 

Boyd Lee Dunlop died on Friday, December 27, 2013. 

Written by: Greg Hennessey