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Alvin Burroughs

American musician (1911-1950)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 23, 2025
Entity authorityQ449051
Source-derived summary

Alvin Burroughs (November 21, 1911 – August 1, 1950) was an American swing jazz drummer.

Burroughs played in Kansas City with Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1928–29 and then with Alphonse Trent's territory band in 1930.

Moving to Chicago, he played with Hal Draper's Arcadians (1935), Horace Henderson (July 1937–38), and Earl Hines (September 1938–40); with Hines he recorded extensively. In the early 1940s he worked with Milt Larkin's band at the Rhumboogie Club, Benny Carter (late 1942), and Red Allen (late 1944–April 46), in addition to leading his own band. He was in George Dixon's quartet in 1950 when he died of a heart attack. He never recorded as a leader.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Alvin Burroughs” as american musician (1911-1950). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1911, 1950, 1928, 1930—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1911-11-21. The account is most persuasive where Alvin, Burroughs and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american musician (1911-1950). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 23, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q449051. VIAF identifies the subject as 417149106369168492840. The Library of Congress control number is n94120288. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1911, 1950, 1928 and 1930.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Alvin Burroughs”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Alvin Burroughs primary sources, Alvin Burroughs archive and Alvin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Alvin Burroughs”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Alvin Burroughs” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.