b. Sylvester Austin, 17 September 1929, Dunnellon, Florida, USA. A quintessential R&B tenor saxophone "honker", Austin started his career by winning a talent contest at Harlem's Apollo theatre. He learned his craft in the big bands of Roy Eldridge and Cootie Williams. In 1956 he reached the Top 20 with "Slow Walk" and had later hits with "Balin' Wire", "Birthday Party" and "Shufflin' Home", irresistible slices of high-energy R&B. Later on, Austin recorded for Shelby Singleton's SSS label.

Listen to Sil Austin at Finetune.

• (1999)  Swingsation: Sil Austin

• Slow Walk
• The Continental Stroll, Parts 1 & 2
• Bailin' Wire
• Everything's Shakin'
• Dogwood Junction

• Sam Cooke
• Ray Charles
• Hank Ballard
• Lloyd Price
• The Coasters
• Fats Domino
• Gene Vincent
• Duane Eddy
• Chuck Berry
• Eddie Cochran
• Elvis Presley
• Bill Withers
• Joe Turner
• Aretha Franklin
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• The Crickets
• The Jamies
• Carl Perkins
• Claudine Clark
• LaVern Baker

• eddielin11