Castor McCord

Who was Castor McCord?

Castor "Cass" McCord was an American jazz saxophonist. He was the twin brother of saxophonist Ted McCord. McCord started out as a member of Edgar Hayes's Blue Grass Buddies in 1924. He then attended Wilberforce University, where he played in the student band run by Horace Henderson. Later in the 1920s he moved from Ohio to Atlantic City and then to New York City, where he played with the Mills Blue Rhythm Band and Louis Armstrong late in the 1920s. Time soon followed with Eubie Blake and Charlie Matson.

In the middle of the 1930s, McCord played in France for a year and toured India with Leon Abbey in 1936. McCord led his own trio in Amsterdam in 1937, then worked with Walter Rains in Rotterdam the next year. He moved back to New York near the end of the decade, returning to play under Abbey before joining the bands of Benny Carter, Eddie Mallory, and Claude Hopkins.

In 1940, McCord left music to open a hairdresser shop in Manhattan, which he ran until his death in 1963.