Eugene Staples, better known by the stage name Blue Steele (March 11, 1893 – July 1, 1971) was an American jazz singer, trombonist and bandleader.
Staples was born in Arkansas and played in a hot jazz group called Watson's Bell Hops in the early 1920s.
[2] His sidemen included Frank Martinez, Pat Davis, Joe Hall, Sammy Goble, Gene Gifford, and Kenny Sargent, all of whom later joined the Casa Loma Orchestra.
Singers for the group included Kay Austin, Mabel Batson, Clyde Davis, George Marks, and Bob Nolan.
[3] Staples had a notoriously bad temper and was regarded by his bandmates as difficult to work with; big band historian Leo Walker wrote, "musicians, anxious to depart the Steele orchestra, had sometimes...been physically beaten by the bandleader.