Marion "Buddy" Childers (February 12, 1926 – May 24, 2007) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and ensemble leader. Childers became famous in 1942 at the age of 16, when Stan Kenton hired him to be the lead trumpet in his band.
Marion “Buddy” Childers, jazz trumpeter and bandleader
was born St Louis, Missouri. Playing lead trumpet for a big band is like being
a carthorse. It's one of the most demanding jobs in music requiring not only
great musical skill and timing, but also stamina beyond man's normal allotment.
Buddy Childers was, for half a century, one of the best. He played the role in
the most demanding band in the world, that of the progressive leader Stan
Kenton.
Another trumpeter with Kenton, Jack Sheldon, famously
recalled that Stan stood in front of the band wanting louder, louder. “It
didn't matter whether you played the music as written because it was so loud
that nobody could tell whether you were actually playing or not.” It was not
unknown for Kenton's lead trumpeters to pass out on the stand from
over-extending themselves. It happened to Al Porcino, the iron man of the horn,
and also to Childers, as he recalled:
“It was at the beginning of the job during the band's
theme “Artistry in Rhythm”. I was playing a high D, which isn't that high as
trumpet parts go, but I had to hold it for four incredibly slow bars and the
next thing I knew I was on the floor on my back with my horn still at my mouth
and Stan was leaning over the sax section peering at me”.
The Kenton band book was so demanding that Childers and
Porcino were among several of his trumpet players who wore abdominal supports.
The need for these was an indication that the musicians weren't blowing
correctly.
Childers, who was born and raised in Belleville, Ill.,
near St. Louis joined the Kenton band in
1942 when he was 16. It was rare for one so young to join a “name” band.
Self-taught, he had taken up the trumpet when he was 12 and had joined the
musicians' union in his home city of St Louis, Missouri and become a working
professional at 14. Soon after joining the Kenton band he became its lead
trumpet player.
“Guys in the trumpet section were always laying out while
waiting to play a high note on the end of a song. One night three guys laid out
and I was the only one playing the part. Stan got livid. He had told us not to
do that, but they'd done it anyway. Stan turned purple with rage.”
“You, you and you,” he said, “you're fired!” He turned to
me and said “You, you're my new first trumpet player.” He thought better of
that later, but it was too late and he kept his word”. The Kenton band worked
for a year backing Bob Hope's radio show.
Childers worked with Kenton off and on from 1942 to 1954.
In between he joined the bands led by Benny Carter, André Previn, Les Brown and
Vido Musso. In 1951 he joined Tommy Dorsey,
where he partnered the remarkable virtuoso Charlie Shavers in the trumpet section. Dorsey was a monster to work for, indifferent to the suffering of his musicians. On a long tour of Brazil Childers almost came to blows with him but stood up to the bandleader and afterwards they became good friends.
where he partnered the remarkable virtuoso Charlie Shavers in the trumpet section. Dorsey was a monster to work for, indifferent to the suffering of his musicians. On a long tour of Brazil Childers almost came to blows with him but stood up to the bandleader and afterwards they became good friends.
Leaving Dorsey he played for Georgie Auld and then
rejoined the Charlie Barnet Band - he had been with Barnet in 1950. He worked
as a freelance in Los Angeles and then spent seven years in Las Vegas from 1959
to 1966. He then returned to Los Angeles where he worked as a studio musician
until the 1980s, working and recording under all the well-known leaders in the
city.
In the late Seventies he joined the big band led by the
pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi and her saxophone- playing husband Lew Tabackin,
recording and touring Europe with them. From 1983 he worked as music director
for Frank Sinatra Jr's backing band.
He proved what an emotional man he was at a Stan Kenton
Convention at Egham, Surrey in 1996, when he broke down and cried whilst
explaining the enormous difficulties the trumpet section had had to overcome
when he led it through a complex passage in Kenton's “Concerto to End All
Concertos”.
Childers also had a successful career as a photographer.
He led his own big band at various times in Los Angeles and proved himself a
worthy soloist on many occasions over the years. He battled with cancer for
almost a decade but as recently as a year before he died he was playing from
his wheelchair at jam sessions in LA.
He died at his Woodland Hills home from complications of
cancer on May 24, 2007, age 81. (Bio mainly from All About jazz)
4 comments:
For “Buddy Childers With The Russ Garcia Strings – Artistry In Jazz” go here:
https://www.upload.ee/files/11121101/Buddy_Childers_Artistry_In_jazz.rar.html
1 Come Home Again 3:29
2 The Shadow Of Your Smile 3:19
3 Stardust 5:08
4 You Are Too Beautiful 3:44
5 Body and Soul 4:38
6 'Round Midnight 5:12
7 My Diane 3:31
8 Lush Life 4:41
9 Stars Fell On Alabama 4:14
10 Sophisticated Lady 3:17
11 Angel Eyes 3:54
12 Din Di (Jin Je) 3:41
Flugle horn – Buddy Childers
Bass, Bass Guitar – John Leitham
Drums – Gregg Field
Piano – Brian O'Rourke
Vibraphone – Russell Garcia
Thanks, Bob.
Another great trumpet lead worth looking at would be Conrad Gozzo ("Goz").
Hello Mel, Conrad Gozzo (February 6, 1922 - October 8, 1964).
Sorry but we've missed his birthday, so you'll have to wait till next year :-)
Regards, Bob
Heh, heh - that'll give you plenty of time to prepare something...
Regards,
Mel
Post a Comment