Brenton Banks

US violinist, pianist, arranger, concertmaster and educator from Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Music he made his way to Nashville, Tennessee where he led his own jazz combo, The Brenton Banks Quartet, in the 1950s and 1960s. Banks was the second African-America to join the Nashville Symphony Orchestra (following William Oscar Smith) and was the only African-American musician to do studio session work in the Nashville Sound era of the 1960s and early 1970s. He was a longtime member of the music faculty of Tennessee State University from 1952 to 1976, when he left Nashville for Los Angeles. He continued his session career in California then eventually retired to Arizona.

Born June 24, 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Died January 2, 2010 in Tucson, Arizona.