Biography

The Beginnings of a Bandleader

During his junior year in college — 1926 — Kyser’s bandleader career began in earnest. UNC can boast of several successful musicians, and Hal Kemp was one of them. Kemp led the school’s orchestra and, nearing graduation, decided to pursue a music career. Kemp thought Kyser’s popularity on campus would result in bigger audiences for the band and asked Kyser to take over. He did.

Six guys — none of whom displayed remarkable musical talent — showed Pullout Quoteup for tryouts on campus, according to UNC’s newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel. "At the first rehearsal in Gerrard Hall, it became apparent that the band was horrible, but nobody cared. Kyser’s enthusiasm was contagious," the newspaper recalled in 1983. At its first engagement, in Oxford, N.C., the band relied on "stunts, fake beards, trick hats and Kyser’s stage antics to hide its ineptitude" and got $60.

Up until this time, Kyser had never studied music. He began clarinet lessons but to no avail. The lessons "failed miserably," his wife said years later. And when he tried to play with the orchestra, the boys in the band talked him out of it. So instead, Kyser performed a tap routine to the music and followed the advice that Kemp had given him: "It’s very easy," Kyser recalled in Seventeen. "All you have to do is stand in front of the band, jump around there and make faces — the boys will do the playing." Kyser also began using his middle initial as his first name, deciding his given name sounded too dignified for a bandleader.

The band played dances at UNC in the "Tin Can" and at other southern schools. The musicians grew in popularity and were hired to play the Georgia Tech finals, a traditional big-name band gig, for a whopping sum of $2,000. As he neared graduation, Kyser decided to seek musical success on a higher level.

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