Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charlie Spivak was born on February 17, 1905 in Kyiv, Ukraine and learned to play trumpet when he was ten years old. He played in his high school band, going on to work with local groups before joining the Johnny Cavallaro Orchestra.

He went on to play with Paul Specht’s band for most of 1924 to 1930, then spent time with Ben Pollack early Thirties, and the Doresy Brothers to the middle of the decade. Ray Noble was his next stop prior to the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1935. He spent the next two years working mostly as a studio musician with Gus Arnheim, Glenn Miller, Raymond Scott’s radio orchestra, and others, followed by periods with Bob Crosby, Tommy Dorsey, and Jack Teagarden to the end of the Thirties.

Finally, with the encouragement and financial backing of Glenn Miller, he formed his own band in late 1939. His first attempt was a failure within a year, but his second proved successful, one of the most successful bands in the 1940s, and survived until 1959. He scouted top trumpeter Paul Fredricks (formerly of Alvino Rey’s Orchestra) just as Fredricks left the service at the end of World War II, in 1946. Trumpeter Paul Fredricks was recruited after WWII service and became  instrumental in the band’s success in the coming years as it reached its peak.

Spivak’s experience playing with jazz musicians had little effect on his own band’s style, which was straight dance music, made up mainly of ballads and popular tunes. Trombonist Nelson Riddle, saxophonist Manny Albam and Sonny Burke arranged for the band. When the orchestra broke up he went to live in Florida, where he continued to lead a band until illness led to his temporary retirement in 1963. On his recovery, he continued to lead large and small bands, first in Las Vegas, Nevada and then moved to Greenville, South Carolina in 1967, where he led a small group featuring his wife as vocalist.

Trumpeter and bandleader Chalie Spivak, known during his heyday as The Man Who Plays The Sweetest Trumpet In The World, continued to play and record until his transition on March 1, 1982 in Greenville.

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