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On the web since 1999
Although he was famous for modernizing the sound of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (“On the Sunny Side of the Street” was his biggest hit while working for Dorsey), this arranger will forever be best-known for his work for the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. Who is he?
...May 22nd, 2019
This pianist worked with (among others) the bands of Bunny Berigan, Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman, and was Bing Crosby’s musical director at the time of Crosby’s death in 1977. Who is he?
...September 15th, 2014
No musician evokes the time of the Big Band era more strikingly than Tommy Dorsey (1905 – 1956), whose towering trombone style and smash hits created legions of fans and influenced popular music for decades. Peter Levinson, the author of criticially acclaimed biographies of Harry James and Nelson Riddle, has now written the definitive account of this icon of jazz, drawing on exhaustive new research and scores of interviews with the musicians and others who knew him best.
...November 5th, 2005
Excerpted from Tommy Dorsey: Livin’ in a Great Big Way, by Peter Levinson.
With young men being drafted in profusion and some even volunteering for military service, big bands found new venues to work: Army and Air Force bases and Naval stations. With the pre-war and war period having nothing but a favorable effect on the band business, by 1940, dance bands were still big business. Altogether, big bands of every stripe earned one hundred ten million dollars that year.
...September 29th, 2005
”“Mingus au Paradis” by Manuel J. Grimaldi
The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.... Manuel J. Grimaldi reads his poem at its conclusion
Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem
Click here to read more book excerpts published on Jerry Jazz Musician
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