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Urban Clifford “Urbie” Green was born August 8, 1926 in Mobile, Alabama and was taught the piano as a child by his mother, jazz and popular tunes from the beginning. He picked up the trombone when he was about 12 and although he listened to such trombone greats as Tommy Dorsey, J.C. Higginbotham, Jack Jenney, Jack Teagarden and Trummy Young, he was more influenced by the styles of Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Parker and Lester Young. Vocalists Perry Como and Louis Armstrong also influenced his style.
After his father died when he was 15, Green went straight into professional music, first joining the Tommy Reynolds Band and then stints with Bob Strong, Jan Savitt and Frankie Carle. While at Auburn High School he played with The Auburn Knights Orchestra, a college big band. In 1947, he joined Gene Krupa’s outfit and quickly moved up to Woody Herman’s 3rd Thundering Herd Big Band in 1950 to play with his brother, Jack.
By 1953 Urbie was in New York City quickly establishing himself as the premier trombonist in the booming recording industry and in 1954 he was voted the “New Star” trombonist in the International Critics Poll from Down Beat magazine. He was voted “Most Valuable Player” several times by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He recorded with virtually all of the major jazz musicians of the 1950s and 1960s and led his own groups while also joining tours as a featured performer.
He collaborated with innovative producer Enoch Light for the Command and Project 3 labels, producing The Persuasive Trombone of Urbie Green and 21 Trombones, and was sideman and soloist on the album ‘s Continental by Ray Conniff in 1961. In the Seventies he began making innovations with his instrument designing a signature mouthpiece for Jet Tone and collaborated with Martin Brass on practical improvements to trombone design.
He would go on to record with Enoch Light and the Light Brigade, Dick Hyman, Maynard Ferguson and Doc Severinsen before moving over to CTI where he played more of his music and less solos with his band. He would record with Blue Mitchell, Herbie Mann, Manny Albam,, Steve Allen, Ray Bryant, Count Basie, Paul Desmond, Gil Evans, Art Farmer, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Griffin, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, Wes Montgomery, Mark Murphy and the list goes on and on.
By the 1980s and beyond Urbie’s recording career began a slowing down with only two live, straight jazz works; Just Friends, and Sea Jam Blues. In 1995 he was elected into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and he still plays live at the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts Festival every September, just miles down the road from his home.
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