Doggett, J. Taylor

J. Taylor Doggett is a businessman and writer who has extensively researched, among various other interests, the 1950s R & B group the 5 Royales, swing bandleaders, and musicians associated with the University of North Carolina. He lives in Greensboro, N.C.

J. Taylor Doggett is a businessman and writer who has extensively researched, among various other interests, the 1950s-era R&B group the 5 Royales and swing bandleaders and musicians associated with the University of North Carolina. He lives in Greensboro, N.C.

Founded in Winston Salem, N. C., the 5 Royales were significant in providing a link between early R&B and early soul in their combination of doo wop, jump blues, and gospel styles. The 5 Royales, which comprised at various points musicians Lowman Pauling, Clarence Paul, Curtis Pauling, Obadiah Carter, Johnny Tanner, Eugene Tanner, Otto Jeffries and William Samuels had great influence on a number of R&B musicians, including Ray Charles, James Brown, and Ike and Tina Turner. In 1992, the 5 Royales were recipients of the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award.

The collection which Doggett dubbed UNC Bandleaders focuses on several nationally prominent entertainers of the Big Band jazz era who began their public performance careers while undergraduates at the University of North Carolina. While there is particular emphasis in this collection on Kay Kyser, Hal Kemp, Skinnay Ennis, and John Scott Trotter, Doggett also collected recordings by and information about performers who were professionally associated with them such as Georgia Carroll, Ginny Simms, Harry Babbitt, Merwyn Ish Kabibble Bogue, and Libby Holman.