With a name that sounds like French tourist trying to describe a car wreck in the woods to a state trooper, Laforest Dent was associated with the romping big bands of Jimmie Lunceford and Bennie Moten. He first shows up on Victor recording sessions with Moten in the mid '20s, and in these circumstances begins by strumming time on the banjo. This was both an instrument and an accompanying role that would more dissapear than evolve in terms of the jazz rhythm section, but while most banjoists from this era were content switching to acoustic and electric guitars, Dent literally pulled a Fender-bender and switched to saxophones, which is what he plays on recordings with the Bennie Moten Kansas City Jazz Band from both 1926 and 1927. Dent's primary horn seems to have been the alto saxophone, but he also played tenor and baritone as well as clarinet and was known to sing, although with both Moten and Lunceford this might have been more like blues shouting than crooning. He began working with the latter band in the '30's and appears on some dozen Lunceford reissues featuring material from the '30s. In the '40s, he led his own band, but didn't make that much of a Dent in the jazz scene. As more of a section player rather than a soloist with Lunceford, his importance seems to be as a part of a scenario involving the Lunceford reed section. By the mid '30s, this bandleader had come up with what some pundits claim to be his ultimate reed configuration of three alto, one tenor and one baritone. Several discographical fist fights have developed over who exactly replaced Dent in the Lunceford band, so anyone with a strong opinion over whether it was Dan Grissom, Ted Buckner or Ed Brown would be advised to begin working out with a sparring partner. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide