Jake Porter
American musician, record label owner (1916–1993)
Jake Vernon Haven Porter (August 3, 1916 – March 25, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter and record producer.
Born in Oakland, California, Porter started playing violin at age seven and switched to cornet at nine. He played locally in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1931 and 1939, playing with Melvin Parks, Lionel Hampton, and Saunders King before moving to Los Angeles in 1940. There he found work playing with Cee Pee Johnson, Slam Stewart, and Slim Gaillard; he served in the military in 1942-43 playing in a band at Camp Lockett, near San Diego. After his discharge he played with Benny Carter, Fats Waller, Noble Sissle, Fletcher Henderson, Lionel Hampton (1945–46), Horace Henderson, Benny Goodman (briefly in 1947), and Mel Powell (1947). He led his own band at the Down Beat Room Cafe in Los Angeles from late 1947, and also led an all-female ensemble which toured the American South in 1949. He held a residency at the Norbo Grill in 1950.
In 1951, Porter founded the label Combo Records, which was active until 1961 and released R&B and doo wop releases in addition to some jazz. Much of the material released on the label was recorded in Porter's basement, and he did a fair bit of songwriting for the releases in addition to recording duties. He did further touring as a bandleader in the 1950s, and freelanced in California in the 1960s.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jake Porter” is american musician, record label owner (1916–1993). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Jake, Porter and American, not as a finished interpretation.
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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 Apr 29, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1678838. VIAF identifies the subject as 63620890. The Library of Congress control number is no98024015. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1916, 1993, 1931 and 1939.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jake Porter” 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.