Art Mills
Harlem jazz trumpeter. Former friend and investigative partner of Hilton Adams.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
When not performing, he is usually without a jacket and dressed in a collar and tie, with his sleeves rolled up. He keeps his receding hair cropped very short and his moustache incredibly well trimmed.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Young Art had always been a bit of a scrapper, and his mother despaired that he would end up making her old before her time. But then he discovered music, specifically the trumpet, and spent all his time working “odd jobs” around the neighborhood (including running numbers) to raise enough money to buy one for himself.
A talented musician, after he enlisted, he found himself in the Hellfighters’ jazz band, led by Jim Reese Europe, who became his mentor during their service together on the battlefields of France and helped him rise to the rank of musician first-class. (The Hellfighters are widely held to have introduced jazz to Europe.) Back in New York after the war, Mills has worked in a variety of clubs and speakeasies as a musician, and was enjoying a small degree of fame before Hilton Adams’ arrest. Now, he’s struggling to get the better jobs he knows he deserves, and a recent hefty fine for being caught “in possession” of a bottle of bootleg whisky (yet another of Robson’s ploys) has left him struggling to make ends meet.
Roleplaying hooks: like Johnson, Mills is frustrated by their inability to help their friend without endangering themselves, their families (in this case, Mills’ beloved mother and sister), and their community. He vents that fury through his music. If someone could show him a way to solve the stalemate, he’d probably give them whatever support they might need.
Social
Mannerisms
A ball of frenetic energy, Mills rarely sits still. He speaks quickly, punctuating his words with expansive hand gestures. He gets really fidgety if he doesn’t have his trumpet to hand.
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