Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Merritt Brunies was born on December 25, 1895 into a well-known musical family in New Orleans, Louisiana. Among its members were trombonist George Brunies and cornetist Albert Brunies.
Merritt led his own band, The Original New Orleans Jazz Band, from 1916 to 1918. Though this ensemble never recorded, it existed before both Jimmy Durante’s New Orleans Jazz Band and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Following this, he formed another group which played at Friar’s Inn in Chicago, Illinois directly after the stint by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.
He played regularly in New Orleans in the 1930s, however, by 1946 he moved to Mississippi. There he played with his brothers in a Dixieland jazz band until his retirement. Trombonist and cornetist Merritt Brunies transitioned on February 5, 1973 in Biloxi, Mississippi.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill Reichenbach was born William Frank Reichenbach Jr. on November 30, 1949 in Takoma Park, Maryland. He began playing in high school for bands in the Washington, D.C. area and also sat in with his father’s group, playing with Milt Jackson, Zoot Sims, and others.
He went to Rochester, New York to study at the Eastman School of Music with the legendary teacher Emory Remington and after graduating joined the Buddy Rich band. He would go on to work in the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band in Los Angeles, California in the mid/late 1970s. After that move he became known for music for television and film.[2]
He played trombone on The Wiz and, with the Seawind Horns including Jerry Hey on Michael Jackson’s albums Off the Wall, Thriller, and HIStory. He was a composer for Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
He recorded a solo album, Special Edition, where he is featured on bass trombone as well as tenor. Trombonist, euphoniumist, composer and session musician Bill Reichenbach, who has collaborated on eighty-six albums with artists from Al Jarreau and George Benson to Barbra Streisand, Patti Austin and Bette Midler to Christopher Cross and Selena, continues his career in television, films, cartoons, and commercials.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. was born November 19, 1905 in Mahanoy Plane, Pennsylvania, the second of four children born to bandleader Thomas Francis Dorsey Sr. He studied the trumpet with his father but later switched to trombone. At age 15, Jimmy recommended him to replace Russ Morgan in the Scranton Sirens, a territory band in the 1920s. He worked in bands led by Tal Henry, Rudy Vallee, Vincent Lopez, and Nathaniel Shilkret. In 1923 he went to Detroit to play in Jean Goldkette’s band but returned to New York in 1925 to play with the California Ramblers. Two years later he joined Paul Whiteman, then in 1929, the Dorsey Brothers had their first hit with Coquette for OKeh Records.
In 1934, as the Dorsey Brothers, the band signed with Decca, having a hit with I Believe in Miracles. However, acrimony between the brothers led to Tommy walking out and forming his own band in 1935 and having a hit with Every Little Moment. His orchestra rendered ballads at dance tempos and frequently featured singers Jack Leonard and Frank Sinatra. The band was popular almost from the moment it signed with RCA Victor for “On Treasure Island”, the first of four hits in 1935.
He would go on to have a Dixieland group called Clambake Seven, co-host The Raleigh-Kool Program on the radio and hire arranger Sy Oliver away from Jimmie Lunceford to put more jazz into his pop music. Hiring Sinatra from Harry James helped people the singer to fame and learned breath control from the trombonist. Dorsey’s staff of arrangers included Axel Stordahl, Nelson Riddle, Paul Weston, and Bill Finegan.
Throughout the course of the bands life Bunny Berigan, Doc Severinsen, and Charlie Shavers, Buddy DeFranco, Peanuts Hucko, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, Dave Tough, Edythe Wright, Jo Stafford with the Pied Pipers, Gene Krupa, Dick Haymes, Connie Haines, and The Clark Sisters all worked with Tommy.
Dorsey owned two music publishing companies, a ballroom, trade magazine, sponsored other bands, and disbanded the orchestra afte World War II. Teaming up with his brother once more, the took the unit on tour and onto their own television show, Stage Show, from 1954 to 1956. In January 1956, they made rock music history introducing Elvis Presley on his national television debut. Tommy Dorsey, who had a run of 286 Billboard chart hits, of which were seventeen number-one hits with his orchestra transitioned on November 26, 1956 at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, a week after his 51st birthday. He had begun taking sleeping pills regularly at this time, causing him to become heavily sedated; he choked to death in his sleep after having eaten a large meal.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Edward Pugh, born November 12, 1950 in Butler, Pennsylvania began playing the trombone around the age of ten. He attended the Eastman School of Music from 1968 to 1972, where he played in an ensemble under Chuck Mangione.
Pugh toured and recorded with the Woody Herman Band for four years from 1972 and briefly performed with Chick Corea in 1977. He then concentrated on studio session work for jazz and popular musicians. In 1984, he was co-leader for the album The Pugh–Taylor Project. He also composed for and played on the album X Over Trombone.
Trombonist and composer James Pugh continues to perform and record sessions for jazz, pop and Broadway soundtracks.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Don Lusher was born on November 6, 1923 in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England and started playing the trombone at six years old in his local Salvation Army band, the third generation of his family to do so.
During World War II, he served as a gunner signaller in the Royal Artillery. After the war, he became a professional musician, playing with the bands of Joe Daniels making £12 a week, Lou Preager, Maurice Winnick, the Squadronaires, Jack Parnell and the Ted Heath Big Band.
Lusher spent nine years as lead trombone with Ted Heath’s Orchestra and toured the United States with him five times. After several attempts to revive the band, Don took over the leadership in 1976. He led the ‘Ted Heath Tribute Orchestra’ throughout the 1980s and 1990s until the sold-out final concert at the Royal Festival Hall in December 2000. He led the trombone section during many of Frank Sinatra’s European tours. In 1975 he gave the first performance of Gordon Langford’s Rhapsody for Trombone at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and went on to perform it around the world.
Lusher formed his own ensemble, the Don Lusher Big Band, performed with the Manhattan Sound Big Band, played with Alexis Korner and various session musicians in the big band-rock fusion group CCS, and was a founder member of the Best of British Jazz group from the 1970s onwards.
After spending some years as a Professor of the Royal College of Music he became Professor of Trombone at the Royal Marines School of Music, in Portsmouth, England in 1997, retiring in 2004.
In 2001, he recorded an album British Jazz Legends Together on the Decca label featuring Kenny Ball, Acker Bilk, John Chilton and the Feetwarmers, John Dankworth, Humphrey Lyttelton, and George Melly.
He was awarded the status of Freeman of the City of London, received an OBE for services to the music industry, and was twice president of the British Trombone Society. Trombonist Don Lusher, who with his big band played its final concert in 2007, transitioned in Cheam, England on July 5, 2006 at 82.
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