Real name: Dallas Emmet Bartley

American jazz bassist.
Played with : Earl Hines, Cab Callowy, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan (Tympany Five), Dinah Washington, Ray Charles and others.

Born : September 15, 1916 in Cave Springs, Missouri.
Died : November 22, 1979 in Springfield, Missouri.

Dallas Bartley began his musical career at the Riverside Inn restaurant in Ozark, Missouri during the mid 1930's.

Dallas started playing the violin, guitar and piano as a young man, but because Springfield had no music programs for the black community his parents would take him to Tulsa, Oklahoma where he learned the string bass.

After 30 years on the road with some of the biggest bands of the era he would move back to Springfield, Missouri in 1969.