Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Lyle “Rusty” Dedrick was born on July 12, 1918 in Delevan, New York. His first call to jazz  came when he was in a music store in Buffalo, New York and heard a Louis Armstrong record. So taken was he that he bought the record, then returned home to save money for a record player. After brief studies at Fredonia State Teachers College, he spent a two-year jazz apprenticeship working with the band known as “Mr. And Mrs. Swing,” the Red Norvo/Mildred Bailey Orchestra, featuring the arrangements of a young Eddie Sauter.

He followed this with two stints with Claude Thornhill (1941-42 and 1946-47) and the chance to play a book by Gil Evans. This experience, plus private studies with Paul Creston and Stefan Wolpe, were good preparation for a long career in the New York City jazz commercial music field.

His credits included writing and/or playing with Maxine Sullivan, Lee Wiley, Lionel Hampton and others, along with radio and television studio work with Arthur Godfrey, Ed Sullivan, Sid Ceasar and more. At the same time, Rusty was recording his own LPs.

In 1971 Dedrick joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music as Director of Jazz Studies. He guest conducted many all-county high school jazz bands, as well as the prestigious American Jazz Orchestra. Swing and bebop jazz trumpeter, arranger, composer and educator Rusty Dedrick, who recorded three albums as a leader, transitioned on December 25, 2009 in Summitville, New York

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