(November 27th 1904 - April 25th 1962)

Born in Louisiana, Missouri in 1904 Eddie South was a classical violin prodigy whose family moved to Chicago when he was a child. After graduated from the Chicago Music College, Eddie found to his dismay that positions playing in classical assemblies were not available for African American musicians. For this reason he began his professional career playing in the band's of Freddie Keppard, Erskine Tate, Charles Elgar, and Jimmy Wade. In 1928 a tour of Europe made a lasting impression on the young musician allowing him to be heavily influenced by Hungarian folk music.