Raymond Kaalund

Biography

Raymond Albert Kaalund was born on December 24 1913 in St Croix, Dutch West Indies. At the age of 7 his family came to New York City and at the age of 12 he began learning the art of tap dancing. His tap career began around 1928 at the age of 15 and lasted through the mid 70s on a tour that traveled throughout the United States and Europe called 1000 years of jazz. The tour, which lasted about 8 years, featured the original hoofers, tap greats Buster Brown, Chuck Green, Lon Chaney, Ralph Brown, Jimmy Slide Bernard Manner and Raymond Kaalund along with some great New Orleans jazz musicians. Raymond appeared in several all black films i.e. Temptation (1935), Sepia Cinderella (1947), in a Louis Jordan musical short called Caldonia (1945) in the 40s. He appeared in the film Tap Happenings in 1969. He performed on the Ed Sullivan and David Frost shows and on 'To tell the truth'. He also played the Apollo theater several times as part of different groups: The Barons, the Three Dukes, which included Buster Brown and Bubba Gains. He worked with Count Basie, The Duke, the Hines Bros., the Nicolas Bros and traveled with Bob Hope to Newfoundland to perform on a USO show.