Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Dorsey was born on February 29, 1904 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Known as “JD”, he played trumpet in his youth and appeared on stage with J. Carson McGee’s King Trumpeters in 1913 at age nine. He switched to alto saxophone two years later, then learning to double on the clarinet.
With his brother Tommy playing trombone, he formed Dorsey’s Novelty Six, one of the first jazz bands to broadcast. In 1924 he joined the New York City based California Ramblers with Paul Whiteman and Red Nichols, did freelance radio and recording work throughout the 1920s and joined the Ted Lewis band, with whom he toured Europe.
He went on to work with Rudy Vallee and other bandleaders, continued with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, appeared on seventy-five radio broadcasts, breaking with his brother changed the band to the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra with Bobby Byrne, Ray McKinley, Donald Matteson, Skeets Herfurt, and vocalists Bob Eberly and Kay Weber, later hiring Helen O’Connell.
In the fifties he rejoined his brother under the auspices of Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra featuring Jimmy Dorsey, appeared on Jackie Gleason’s show and got their own weekly variety program Stage Show, produced by Gleason.
Jimmy took over leadership of the orchestra after Tommy’s death but only survived a few months passing away from throat cancer at age 53 in New York City on June 12, 1957.
Jimmy received a gold record for the Herst/Sharpe composition So Rare, made Latin flavored records that topped the charts in 1941, appeared in several movies including their own bio-pic The Fabulous Dorseys, composed the classic tune I’m Glad There Is You, as well as a host of others collaborating with Jimmy Van Heusen, Sonny Burke, Frankie Trumbauer and Babe Russin to name a few.
Saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey is considered one of the most important and influential alto saxophone players of the Big Band and Swing era, had several #1 hits, honored with a U.S. postal stamp, had his recording of Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil) into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Big Band and Swing Hall of Fame.