Jazz musicians from Texas

David "Buck" Wheat (March 19, 1922 – June 15, 1985) was an American folk and jazz musician. The Texas-born Wheat was a guitarist and bass player with the dance bands of the era, playing at the Chicago Playboy Jazz Festival 1959 in The Playboy Jazz All Stars and the Chet Baker Trio. In the winter of 1957, he was a jazz guitarist with Baker's Trio. Though most of Baker's material was recorded in Los Angeles, "Embraceable You", "There's a Lull in My Life" and "My Funny Valentine" are rare examples of Baker recording in New York. The format is also unusual for him, just Baker's vocals (no trumpet) accompanied by only Wheat on nylon string acoustic guitar and bassist Russ Savakus.
Wheat wrote music with his partner, lyricist Bill Loughborough. Their composition "Better Than Anything" is part of the live acts of Lena Horne, Phylicia Rashad, Irene Kral, Bob Dorough, Tuck and Patti and Al Jarreau. Their next song, "Coo Coo U", was recorded both by The Kingston Trio and by The Manhattan Transfer. Wheat embraced George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization for improvization; he would sing scales while playing a guitar accompaniment based on the theory.

Donald Ray Payne (January 7, 1933 – February 25, 2017) was an American jazz double-bassist and electric bassist.

Clifford Donley Scott (June 21, 1928 – April 19, 1993), born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, was an American saxophonist and flautist who played in jazz, blues, and R&B idioms.
Scott started as a drummer in a family band and also learned to play piano and violin before picking up clarinet as a teenager. He played in a house band led by James Hopkins at San Antonio's Avalon Grill in the late 1940s, then worked with Amos Milburn, Jay McShann, Lionel Hampton, Roy Brown, and Roy Milton. In 1955 he began working with Bill Doggett, and was a prominent soloist on many of Doggett's most famous recordings, including "Honky Tonk". He also recorded as a leader in the late 1950s and early 1960s and worked as a session musician for rock, pop, and R&B recordings. In the 1960s he worked with Sonny Thompson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Gerald Wilson, Onzy Matthews, and Frank Butler, and was a member of Ray Charles's ensemble from 1966 to 1968 and again in 1970. Late in his career he worked primarily locally in San Antonio, playing with George Prado and Jim Cullum, Jr.

Joe Leandrew McQueen (May 30, 1919 – December 7, 2019), also known as Joe Lee McQueen, was an American jazz saxophonist.

Wilbert Granville Thodore Hogan Jr. (January 16, 1929 – August 7, 2004) was an American jazz drummer. He used both Granville and Wilbert professionally, and is credited variously with names and initials on albums.

Mary Louise Tobin (November 11, 1918 – November 26, 2022) was an American jazz singer and musician. She appeared with Benny Goodman, Bobby Hackett, Will Bradley, and Jack Jenney. Tobin introduced "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" with Goodman's band in 1939. Her biggest hit with Goodman was "There'll Be Some Changes Made", which was number two on Your Hit Parade in 1941 for 15 weeks. Tobin was the first wife of trumpeter and bandleader Harry James, with whom she had two sons.

Knocky Parker (August 8, 1918, Palmer, Texas – September 3, 1986, Los Angeles, California), born John William Parker, II, was an American jazz pianist. He played primarily ragtime and Dixieland jazz.
A native of Texas, Parker played in the Western swing bands The Wanderers (1935) and the Light Crust Doughboys (1937–39) before serving in the military during World War II.After the war he worked with Zutty Singleton and Albert Nicholas. He became an English professor at Kentucky Wesleyan College and the University of South Florida. On the side, he played piano with Tony Parenti, Omer Simeon and Doc Evans. He recorded albums for Euphonic, GHB, Jazzology, London, Progressive, Paradox, Audiophile and Texstar. At Audiophile, he was one of the first to record all known ragtime pieces by Scott Joplin, excluding "The Silver Swan", which was not discovered at that point.
In 1984, he was nominated for a Grammy Award with Big Joe Turner for Big Joe Turner with Knocky Parker and His Houserockers.

William Franklin Lee III, aka Bill Lee (February 20, 1929-October 23, 2011) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, author, and music educator who was renowned for pioneering comprehensive music education, including jazz, at the collegiate level. He led the University of Miami School of Music and was the University of Miami's third music school dean from 1964 to 1982.In 1989, Lee retired from the University of Miami but continued to work in music education at other institutions. He was distinguished professor emeritus of music theory and composition and emeritus composer in residence. Lee was vice-president and provost at the University of Miami and president and executive director of IAJE.His son Will Lee played bass guitar for Late Night with David Letterman and Late Show with David Letterman.

William B. Lawsha, better known as Prince Lasha (), (September 10, 1929 – December 12, 2008) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, baritone saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist and English horn player.

Robert Earl Hames (January 22, 1920 – September 6, 1998) was an American jazz guitarist from Texas who played with the dance orchestras of Jan Garber, Orrin Tucker, and Stan Keller. In the early 1950s he was a staff guitarist for live productions at WFAA-TV, a Dallas–Fort Worth broadcaster. Down Beat magazine rated Hames as one of the top ten guitarists in the US.In the mid-1940s Hames was a member of the Jan Garber Orchestra and the Orrin Tucker band before enrolling at the University of North Texas. In 1945 he enrolled at the University of North Texas College of Music. While there, he played electric guitar in 1945 with the Aces of Collegeland, the forerunner to the One O'Clock Lab Band. He also taught guitar on and off campus. One of his high-school students, Jack Petersen, went on to become a well-known jazz educator and jazz guitarist. Hames introduced Petersen to jazz recordings of Karl Kress, Tal Farlow, Chuck Wayne, Herb Ellis (then a student at North Texas), Barney Kessel, Barry Galbraith, Remo Palmieri, Oscar Moore, and Charlie Christian.
While a student at North Texas in 1946, Hames was one of eight student musicians from North Texas to guest star on Interstate's weekly musical radio show, 3:30, Sunday, April 14, 1946, aired on WFAA. Betty Cooper (vocalist) featured with the Blue Notes, a quartet composed of Lynn McClain, June Heitt, Bonnye Williams, and Elsie Mae Cooper. Bob Hames (electric guitar), Jim Bob Floyd (piano), and Bill Meeks (clarinet) were featured as a trio. Hames was a guitarist on the Jerry Haynes Show on WFAA TV in the mid-1950s, which aired Monday through Friday at noon.Hames also had a music store in Greenville, Texas, on Washington Street. He died in Texas in 1998.