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This article is about trombonist and band leader Tommy Dorsey. For the pianist and jazz and gospel composer, see Thomas A. Dorsey.
Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey, in The Fabulous Dorseys
Tommy Dorsey, in The Fabulous Dorseys
Background information
Born November 10, 1905
Origin Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, USA
Died November 26, 1956
Genre(s) Big band
Swing
Jazz
Occupation(s) Bandleader
Instrument(s) Trombone
Trumpet
Years active 1920's -1956
Label(s) RCA, Decca, OKeh, Columbia
Associated acts California Ramblers
Jimmy Dorsey
Jean Goldkette
Paul Whiteman
Frank Sinatra
Buddy DeFranco
Buddy Rich
Jo Stafford
Connie Haines

Tommy Dorsey (November 10, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey. His lyrical trombone style became one of the signature sounds of his band and of the Swing Era.

Contents

Early life

Thomas Francis Dorsey, Jr. was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, and started out only 16 years later in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with big band leader Russ Morgan in the famous pick-up band of the 1920s "The Scranton Sirens".

Tommy and his brother Jimmy worked in several bands, including those of Rudy Vallee, Vincent Lopez, and especially Paul Whiteman, before forming the original Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in 1934. Glenn Miller was a member of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in 1934 and 1935, composing "Annie's Cousin Fanny" and "Dese Dem Dose" for the band. Ongoing acrimony between the brothers, however, led to Tommy Dorsey's walking out to form his own band in 1935, just as the Orchestra was having a hit with "Every Little Moment."

His own band

Tommy Dorsey's first band formed out of the remnant of the Joe Haymes band, and his smooth, lyrical trombone style – whether on ballads or on no-holds-barred swingers – became one of the signature sounds of both his band and the Swing Era. The new band hit from almost the moment it signed with RCA Victor with "On Treasure Island", the first of four hits for the new band that year. That led to a run of 137 Billboard chart hits, including his theme song, "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" (which showcases his phenomenal range and masterful mute use, reaching up to the high C #), "Marie", "The Big Apple", "Music, Maestro, Please", "I'll Never Smile Again", "This Love of Mine", "On the Sunny Side of the Street", "T.D.'s Boogie Woogie", "Well, Git 'It", "Opus One", "Manhattan Serenade", and "There Are Such Things" – among many others.

The band featured a number of the best instrumentalists in jazz at the time, including trumpeters Bunny Berigan, Ziggy Elman, George Seaberg, Carl "Doc" Severinsen, and Charlie Shavers, pianists Milt Raskin, Jess Stacy, trumpeter/arranger/composer Sy Oliver (who wrote "Well, Git 'It" and "Opus One"), clarinetists Buddy DeFranco, Johnny Mince and Peanuts Hucko drummers Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, Gene Krupa and Dave Tough and singers Jack Leonard, Edythe Wright, Jo Stafford, Dick Haymes, Connie Haines and Frank Sinatra, and the close-harmony singing group The Pied Pipers. Sinatra achieved his first great success as a vocalist in the Dorsey band and claimed he learned breath control from watching Dorsey play trombone. Dorsey said his trombone style was heavily influenced by that of Jack Teagarden. Another member of the Dorsey band probably spent considerable time observing and listening to Sy Oliver's striking arrangements: trombonist Nelson Riddle, whose later partnership as Sinatra's major arranger and conductor is considered to have revolutionised post-World War II popular music.

Dorsey might have broken up his own band permanently following World War II, as many big bands did due to the shift in music economics following the war, and he did disband the orchestra at the end of 1946. But a top-ten selling album (All-Time Hits) made it possible for Dorsey to re-organise a big band in early 1947.

The biographical film of 1947, The Fabulous Dorseys describes sketchy details of how the brothers got their start from-the-bottom-up into the jazz era of one-nighters, the early days of radio in its infancy stages, and the onward march when both brothers ended up with Paul Whiteman before 1935 when The Dorsey Brothers' Orchestra split into two.

The Dorsey brothers themselves later reconciled – Jimmy Dorsey had had to break up his own highly successful big band in 1953, and brother Tommy invited him to join up as a feature attraction – but before long Tommy renamed the band the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. On December 26, 1953, the brothers appeared with their orchestra on Jackie Gleason's CBS television show, which was preserved on kinescope and later released on home video by Gleason. The brothers took the unit on tour and onto their own television show, Stage Show, from 1954 to 1956, on which they introduced Elvis Presley to national television audiences, among others.

Tommy Dorsey composed several popular songs of the Swing Era, including "To You" and "This is No Dream", co-written with Benny Davis and Ted Shapiro in 1939; "You Taught Me To Love Again" in 1939, with music by Tommy Dorsey and Henri Woode and lyrics by Charles Carpenter, recorded by Gene Krupa and Sarah Vaughan; "In the Middle of a Dream" in 1939 with Al Stillman and Einar Aaron Swan, recorded by Glenn Miller and Red Norvo; "Three Moods"; "Night in Sudan" (1939); "The Morning After" in 1937 with Moe Jaffe and Clay Boland, also recorded by Red Norvo; "Peckin' with the Penguins", co-written with Deane Kincaide from the 1938 short movie feature Porky's Spring Planting; "You Can't Cheat a Cheater" with Frank Signorelli and Phil Napoleon; and, "Trombonology", based on the answers.com and IMDB databases. "To You" was recorded in 1939 by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra and "This is No Dream" was recorded by Harry James and his Orchestra featuring Frank Sinatra on vocals and by Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra with vocals by Judy Ellington.citation needed

Death and aftermath

In 1956, Tommy Dorsey died at age 51 in his Greenwich, Connecticut home, choking in his sleep after a heavy meal following which he had taken sleeping pills. Jimmy Dorsey (out of whose band Tommy had walked two decades earlier) led his brother's band until his own death of throat cancer the following year. At that point, trombonist Warren Covington assumed leadership of the band with, presumably, Jane Dorsey's blessing (she owned the rights to her late husband's band and name) and it produced, ironically enough, the biggest selling hit record ever released under the Dorsey name. Billed as the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Starring Warren Covington, they topped the charts in 1958 with Tea For Two Cha-Cha. Covington led the Dorsey band through 1970 (he also led and recorded with his own organisation), after which Jane Dorsey renamed it, simply, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, which is conducted today by Buddy Morrow, featuring vocalist Rob Zappulla. Jane Dorsey died of natural causes around the age of 79 in 2003.

The grave of Tommy Dorsey in Kensico Cemetery

Married life

Dorsey's married life was varied and, at times, headline-making. His first wife was 16-year-old Mildred Kraft, with whom he eloped in 1922, when he was 17. They had two children, Patricia and Tom (nicknamed "Skipper"), but divorced in 1943. He then wed movie actress Pat Dane in 1943, and they were divorced in 1947, but not before he gained headlines for striking actor Jon Hall when Hall embraced his wife Pat. Finally, Dorsey married Jane Earl New (b. 23 October 1923 in Dublin, Laurens County, Georgia; d. 24 August 2003 in Bay Harbor Island, Miami-Dade County, Florida) on 27 March 1948 in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, and had two children, Catherine Susan and Steve. She remained his wife until his death. She had been a dancer at the world-renowned Copacabana.

Tommy and Jane Dorsey are interred together in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. Sinatra released a tribute album to Dorsey in 1961 entitled I Remember Tommy with arrangements by another Dorsey alumnus, Sy Oliver.

In 1996, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative Tommy Dorsey and Jimmy Dorsey postage stamp.

Discography

Bix Beiderbecke and his Rhythm Jugglers, a pickup band formed, and dissolved, in 1925. From left to right, Howdy Quicksell (banjo), Tom Gargano (drums), Paul Mertz (piano), Don Murray (clarinet), Beiderbecke (cornet), and Tommy Dorsey (trombone).
  • Stop, Look and Listen
  • 1939, Vol No. 3
  • Homefront: 1941–1945
  • The Early Jazz Sides: 1931–1937
  • All-Time Greats Dorsey/Sinatra Hits, Vol 1–4
  • The V-Disc Recordings
  • It's D'Lovely 1947–1950
  • The Complete Tommy Dorsey, Vol. 2 (1936)
  • Stardust
  • Greatest Hits
  • Sentimental
  • Opus One
  • 1937–1938
  • The Fabulous Dorsey
  • Greatest Hits (RCA)
  • Tommy Dorsey, Vol. 1
  • 1938, Vol. 2
  • At the Fat Man's
  • All-Time Greatest Dorsey/Sinatra Hits, Vol. 3
  • All-Time Greatest Dorsey/Sinatra Hits, Vol. 2
  • The Complete Standard Transcriptions
  • Having a Wonderful Time
  • The Complete Tommy Dorsey, Vol 1 (1935)

Filmography

While not known for his acting skills, Dorsey (and members of his band) appeared in the following films:

References

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)
  • Peter J. Levinson, Tommy Dorsey: Livin' in a Great Big Way: a Biography (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2005) ISBN 978-0-306-81111-1
  • Robert L. Stockdale, Tommy Dorsey: On The Side (Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1995) ISBN 0-8108-2951-7

External links

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