Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dennis Matthew Budimir was born on June 20, 1938 in Los Angeles, California. He learned to play piano and guitar in his youth and first played professionally when he was fourteen years old. In mid Fifties Los Angeles he played in a quartet with La Monte Young, Billy Higgins, and Don Cherry and by the late 1950s he was working in the bands of Ken Hanna, Keith Williams, Harry James, and Chico Hamilton.

From 1960–1961 he worked with Bud Shank and accompanied Peggy Lee prior to entering military service. After his discharge in 1963 he toured Japan with Bobby Troup and returned to the Los Angeles area, where he came off the road and became a studio musician for the next several decades. He recorded in this capacity with Lalo Schifrin, Marty Paich, Don Ellis, Gil Melle, Ella Fitzgerald, Milt Jackson, Stan Getz, Julie London, Jimmy Smith, Ray Brown, Johnny Mandel and the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut.

This opportunity also led him to record with Joni Mitchell, The Carpenters, Brian Wilson, Barbra Streisand, Ravi Shankar, Frank Zappa, Linda Ronstadt, Dusty Springfield, Dave Grusin, Quincy Jones, David Axelrod, Tom Waits, Harry Nilsson, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Johnny Mathis, Cher, and Doris Day. He recorded more than 900 movie soundtracks from the early 1960s until the 2000s.

Guitarist Dennis Budimir, considered to be a member of The Wrecking Crew, transitioned on January 10, 2023 at the age of 84.

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