Emmanuel "Mannie" Klein (February 4, 1908 – May 31, 1994) was one of the busiest trumpeters of the 1930s, Manny Klein appeared on a countless number of recordings (both in jazz settings and quite anonymously) through the decades.
Klein was a New Yorker who was a pupil of the trumpet
guru Max Schlossberg and was later in boy’s bands and the New York Junior
Police Band. He was so good so young that from 1928 he was in constant demand
as a freelance beginning with Paul Whiteman in 1928 where he took the solo on
"Makin' Whoopee" that would normally have been taken by the
indisposed Bix Beiderbecke. Klein was on literally hundreds of recordings
during the next nine years, playing in a style that was similar to (and often
later on mistaken for) Bunny Berigan's. Among the many records that he appeared
on were dates led by the Boswell Sisters, the Dorsey Brothers, and Benny
Goodman, plus many dance band sessions for Don Voorhees, Red Nichols, Fred
Rich, Roger Wolfe Kahn, and others; a complete Manny Klein discography has yet
to be assembled.
In 1937 Klein moved to California where, other than some
work with the Frankie Trumbauer Orchestra and with Matty Malneck (1939), he was
a studio musician for 40 years. He occasionally played jazz locally but mostly
performed on movie soundtracks (including dubbing for Ziggy Elman in the Benny
Goodman Story) where his beautiful tone and versatility were considered major
assets. Klein led record dates for Brunswick (1936), Keynote (1946), Coral
(1947), Bond (1950s) and a full album for Imperial (jazz versions of themes
from The Sound of Music in 1959).
In early 194o he appeared on Artie Shaw recordings. He
worked on soundtracks and played trumpet for the film From Here to Eternity but
was uncredited. He worked with musicians associated with West Coast jazz in the
1950s. It would be difficult to find a top-class studio trumpet section in the
1940’s and 1950’s that did not include Klein and his longtime playing collegue
Conrad Gozzo.
As mentioned before, Klein studied with Max Schlossberg
of the New York Philharmonic and although he did not play first trumpet, he was
a member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. In 1953, he
appeared on the Capitol Records album Concerto In C Minor For Piano by Dmitri
Shostakovich and The Four Temperaments by Paul Hindemith with Victor Aller and
Felix Slatkin.
During the early 1960s, Mannie Klein appeared on several
Dean Martin recordings. He played piccolo trumpet on Hugo Montenegro's hit
version of the main theme to the 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Also
that year he toured Japan with Percy Faith's Orchestra.
J. Audino, M. McNabb, M. Klein
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He finally slowed down in his later years, and by the
1990’s was honoured with the nick-name “GOMOTS” (Grand Old Man Of The Trumpet
Section) a fair description, for despite his superlative talents Klein’s solo
jazz recordings could be counted on the valves of half a dozen trumpets. He died
at age of 86 in Los Angeles on May 31, 1994.
(Edited from various sources mainly Wikipedia & The
Rough Guide To Jazz)
As an example of how beautifully Mannie played, here is a
recording he made in 1960 with Glen Gray, who was leading a band of Hollywood
studio musicians who were alumni of swing era bands in recording tributes to
the great musicians of the swing era. This one, a performance of George
Gershwin’s “Embraceable You,” was a salute to the wonderful jazz cornetist
Bobby Hackett.
Please note the first and last photo on this video is not Mannie Klein but the Austrian Oscar Klein (not related.)
Please note the first and last photo on this video is not Mannie Klein but the Austrian Oscar Klein (not related.)
1 comment:
It should also be noted that the great Mannie Klein played, recorded and toured as a prominent member of musician and comedian Mickey Katz's band, and he played solos on most of Katz's recordings in klezmer style. I was privileged briefly to perform with the band in Durban when they toured South Africa in around 1963.
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