Tommy Dorsey

(trombone, trumpet, cornet) 1905 - 1956

May 30th 1935, a date that will live in infamy, well not exactly, but it was on that night at the Glen Island Casino that the legendary argument led to Tommy Dorsey's stage walk off and the brothers going their own ways as leaders. Jimmy kept most of the Dorsey Brothers band together whereas Tommy quickly made a deal with floundering band leader Joe Haymes to take over his band containing many good players, and with an RCA Victor Records contract he was off and running.

As with any new band, even with nationally known leader, it was hard going. Dorsey, always on the look out for star attractions, quickly grabbed ex-Goodman trumpet star Bunny Berigan. Next the band needed a hit record, and from a Victor Records session on 29th January 1937 came two sides destined to change the Dorsey fortunes. The Rimsky Korsakov composition "Song of India" got a swing setting, and Irving Berlin's song "Marie" was dressed up with a Jack Leonard and bandsmen vocal, with a brilliant Berigan solo. The coupling became an instant international hit and set a style for subsequent Dorsey/Leonard arrangements. It may be that Dorsey lifted the singer with echoing bandsmen arrangement from another orchestra but those things happened and it was TD that hit the jackpot. The Berigan solo was so breathtaking that in later Dorsey bands it was arranged as a four trumpet feature as a lasting tribute. There followed a lengthy Raleigh-Kool sponsored radio series beginning in 1937 which projected the band coast to coast. The overall sound was not that dissimilar to the earlier Brothers' band or Bob Crosby's Dixieland inspired big band arrangements.

The success of the Artie Shaw band and the growing threat from the erstwhile Dorsey Brothers arranger, Glenn Miller, forced some major changes on the trombonist. The main change was arranger Sy Oliver, lured from the Jimmie Lunceford band, which encouraged ex-Shaw drummer Buddy Rich to join up, Bunny Berigan was back, hard blowing Ziggy Elman was in the trumpet section and the Pied Pipers vocal group and a young Frank Sinatra were hired, all of which added up to a powerful roster of talent to launch a new look Dorsey Orchestra in the spring of 1940.

There were hit record and personal appearance successes and the Orchestra was hired to open the sumptuous new Hollywood Palladium on Oct 30th 1940 to a huge turnout including many of the Hollywood stars. Throughout Dorsey's leading career there are countless stories of the grudges he could harbour and the men he would suddenly fire in the middle of tours. By mid 1942 with America in the war the entertainment industry moved up several gears as a vital morale builder, and no Orchestra leader did more during the war years than Dorsey. Sinatra left in September of '42 to be replaced by Dick Haymes. A huge string section was now part of the Dorsey sound which lasted till late 1944 when economic realities began to bite. Never the less instrumental hits like Sy Oliver's "Opus One" and the gently swinging Sentimentalist's hit "On The Sunny Side of the Street" consolidated the Dorsey box office appeal when the post war future of touring big bands was beginning to darken.

Following a six month lay off in 1947 Dorsey was back with a leaner and more swinging orchestra with such as Ziggy Elman, Charlie Shavers, Corky Corcoran and drummer Louie Bellson in the ranks. Hollywood had weighed in a fair to middling "The Fabulous Dorseys" film bio and TD was up and at 'em again. He had already become a ballroom operator in Santa Monica, just out of Hollywood, which began to be a money loser but with characteristic perversity he wouldn't sell. As the 40s ended and the big bands were failing or trying new innovative material, Dorsey rode out the depression without bop experimentation although he featured harmonically intriguing originals by Bill Finegan. The Dorsey programmes were essentially for middle America with good songs, some novelties and here and there a bright new swinger to feature Charlie Shavers.

Image of The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, summer 1951. Left to right: Johnny Amorosa, Babe Fresk, Bob Lawson, Hugo Lowenstern, Sam Hyster, Tommy Dorsey, Billy Ainsworth, Fred DeLan, Paul Mason, Norman Seelig, Nick DiMaio, Terry Guinn, George Cherub, Ray Wetzel, Bobby Nichols and Charlie Shavers. (1951)

In 1953 Jimmy, who had given up his band, joined as a featured soloist and with good hotel and tour bookings the future still seemed bright. Good friend Jackie Gleason, who was now a national TV star, arranged for the Dorseys to be his summer replacement programme and rather prophetically it was the first time Elvis Presley was a guest performer. There is a story that says the trombonist confided that he feared that this was the future.

For the next two years the band was headquartered in New York with lengthy residences in the Statler Hotel and with a fresh library of Ernie Wilkins and Deane Kincaide originals a Dorsey renaissance was happening. Then on the night of November 26, 1956, another infamous date, his death from a choking seizure in his sleep was announced. The leader was only 51, and there could have been more music to come especially when the big band nostalgia boom began ten years later. Dorsey's trombone style will forever be regarded as a benchmark for ballad and although he had never regarded himself as a jazzer like Jack Teagarden he could play hot with the best.

< Top

Tommy Dorsey

TOMMY DORSEY & His Orchestra

TOMMY DORSEY & His Orchestra

TOMMY DORSEY & His Orchestra

TOMMY DORSEY & His Orchestra