SAX PLAYER, BAND LEADER CHARLIE BARNET DIES AT 77

Saxophonist Charlie Barnet, a rowdy Swing Era band leader who was among the first whites to hire black musicians, has died. He was 77.

Barnet, credited with discovering singer Lena Horne, died early Wednesday at Hillside Hospital, a nursing supervisor said. He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and died of pneumonia.

Best remembered for the jazz standards “Cherokee” and “Red-skin Rhumba,” Barnet had retired from music and divided his time in recent years between homes in San Diego and Palm Springs. His career spanned four decades.

Barnet hired black musicians as early as 1937, including Frankie Newton and John Kirby. He featured Horne as vocalist. His was one of a few mostly white bands to play Harlem’s Apollo Theater.

Barnet wrote more than 25 Billboard pop chart hits from 1936 to 1946.