Coney Woodman; Central Ave. Jazz Man

Coney Woodman, the oldest son in a family of musicians who were well-known members of the Central Avenue jazz scene in the 1930s and ‘40s, has died. He was 83.

Woodman died June 20 at his home in Los Angeles, said his daughter, Emily.

Born in Jackson, Miss., Woodman was just a year old when the family moved to the Los Angeles area and eventually settled in Watts, when it was a rural community.

Woodman’s father, a trombone player, made his living playing at the Follies Theater, a burlesque house, in downtown Los Angeles. Coney Woodman and his younger brothers, Britt and William Jr., were trained in music at an early age. Woodman learned to play the piano and later banjo, guitar and baritone horn. Britt Woodman, primarily a trombonist, became the best known of the brothers and played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

As teenagers, Coney and his brothers formed the Woodman Brothers Biggest Little Band in the World. Their versatility--it was not uncommon for them to switch instruments in the middle of a set--made them well known around town.

In the oral history project “Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles,” Coney Woodman recalled that the brothers played for everyone. “We played any kind of music. For Mexicans, we played Mexican. . . . We played for this black guy that wanted to take everyone back to Africa, Marcus Garvey. We played for anything.”

The band broke up, Woodman said, when he left town to find work in Chicago. He later joined up with band leader Les Hite in Seattle and toured the country with Hite until he was inducted into the Army in 1942.

After the war, Woodman returned to Los Angeles and played in clubs around town with some of the leading musicians of the day, including Buddy Collette and Charles Mingus. He left the music business in the early 1960s to work at Rockwell International. In his later years, his only performances were given at his church.

Funeral services will be held today at 1:30 p.m. at the Christ Temple Holiness Church, 3125 W. 54th St., Los Angeles 90043. For more information, call (323) 295-4166.

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