Bud Brisbois
Encyclopedia
Austin Dean "Bud" Brisbois (April 11, 1937 – June 1978) was a jazz
and studio trumpet
player. He played all styles, including big band
lead, jazz
soloing, pop
, rock, country
, Motown, and classical, but it was his high-note playing that set him apart. At his peak he was one of the most accurate and consistent of all high-note trumpeters, and his range has never been equaled.
Brisbois was born in Edina, Minnesota
and began studying the trumpet at age 12. He was mainly self-taught, and reportedly had most of his range before leaving high school. He briefly attended University of Minnesota
before moving to Los Angeles
, where he would live most of his life, when not touring. In September 1958 he joined Stan Kenton
's orchestra, where he took over the "scream" parts written for Maynard Ferguson
, in addition to playing much of the lead trumpet. Brisbois toured with Kenton's band until the early 60's, recording over 30 albums. Around 1963 he left Kenton to work in the Los Angeles
recording studios.
Brisbois worked as a studio musician in L.A. from around 1963 to 1975, recording over a hundred albums. Some of the performers he recorded with are:
Herb Alpert
, Tony Bennett
, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra
, Rosemary Clooney
, Nat King Cole
, Bobby Darin
, Neil Diamond
, Duke Ellington
, The 5th Dimension, The Four Freshmen
, Lionel Hampton
, Herbie Hancock
, Harry James
, Stan Kenton
, Henry Mancini
, Dean Martin
, Billy May
, The Monkees
, Bonnie Raitt
, Lou Rawls
, Lalo Schifrin
, Bud Shank
, Frank Sinatra
, Nancy Sinatra
, and Nancy Wilson
.
In addition, he played lead trumpet on the theme songs to Hawaii Five-O
and The Jetsons
.
In early 1973 Brisbois formed the rock group Butane, featuring himself as singer and trumpeter. They recorded a demo and played regular gigs over the next two years, at one point performing on the hit television show The Midnight Special, but never secured a record contract and eventually disbanded.
In 1975 following the breakup of his second marriage, Brisbois began having increasing problems controlling his manic depression, from which he had suffered all his life. He quit the music business entirely and moved to Beverly Hills, where for a time he worked as a Porsche
salesman. In 1976 or 1977, he moved to Scottsdale, Arizona
to be near his sister. Eventually he began playing again. When asked what inspired him, he replied, "I was driving down a freeway in LA and heard Claus Ogerman
's Gate of Dreams album." Brisbois began teaching privately and worked closely with the late Grant Wolf and the Mesa Community College Jazz Band. In addition, he coached the trumpets of the Musicians Union sponsored Young Sounds band. He performed in various bands in the Phoenix area. In late May or early June 1978, Bud appeared as a guest with the jazz-rock group "Matrix" and commented "I played as well as I have ever played." Less than a week later, he committed suicide.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and studio trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
player. He played all styles, including big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
lead, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
soloing, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, rock, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, Motown, and classical, but it was his high-note playing that set him apart. At his peak he was one of the most accurate and consistent of all high-note trumpeters, and his range has never been equaled.
Brisbois was born in Edina, Minnesota
Edina, Minnesota
Edina is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and a first-ring suburb situated immediately southwest of Minneapolis. Edina began as a small farming and milling community in the 1860s. The population was 47,941 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
and began studying the trumpet at age 12. He was mainly self-taught, and reportedly had most of his range before leaving high school. He briefly attended University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
before moving to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where he would live most of his life, when not touring. In September 1958 he joined Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
's orchestra, where he took over the "scream" parts written for Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
, in addition to playing much of the lead trumpet. Brisbois toured with Kenton's band until the early 60's, recording over 30 albums. Around 1963 he left Kenton to work in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
recording studios.
Brisbois worked as a studio musician in L.A. from around 1963 to 1975, recording over a hundred albums. Some of the performers he recorded with are:
Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert
Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
, Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian , which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 –...
, Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
, Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, The 5th Dimension, The Four Freshmen
The Four Freshmen
The Four Freshmen is a multiple Grammy-nominated American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmony jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires , The Pied Pipers , and The Mel-Tones , founded in the barbershop tradition...
, Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Harry James
Harry James
Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...
, Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
, Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
, Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
, Billy May
Billy May
William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...
, The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Lou Rawls
Lou Rawls
Louis Allen "Lou" Rawls was an American soul, jazz, and blues singer. He was known for his smooth vocal style: Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game"...
, Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...
, Bud Shank
Bud Shank
Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank, Jr. was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and throughout the decade worked in various small jazz combos. He spent the 1960s as a first...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
, and Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson (singer)
Nancy Wilson is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist...
.
In addition, he played lead trumpet on the theme songs to Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
and The Jetsons
The Jetsons
The Jetsons is a animated American sitcom that was produced by Hanna-Barbera, originally airing in prime-time from 1962–1963 and again from 1985–1987...
.
In early 1973 Brisbois formed the rock group Butane, featuring himself as singer and trumpeter. They recorded a demo and played regular gigs over the next two years, at one point performing on the hit television show The Midnight Special, but never secured a record contract and eventually disbanded.
In 1975 following the breakup of his second marriage, Brisbois began having increasing problems controlling his manic depression, from which he had suffered all his life. He quit the music business entirely and moved to Beverly Hills, where for a time he worked as a Porsche
Porsche
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....
salesman. In 1976 or 1977, he moved to Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
to be near his sister. Eventually he began playing again. When asked what inspired him, he replied, "I was driving down a freeway in LA and heard Claus Ogerman
Claus Ogerman
Claus Ogerman is a German musical arranger/ orchestrator, conductor, and composer, best known for his works with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra and Diana Krall.-Life and work:...
's Gate of Dreams album." Brisbois began teaching privately and worked closely with the late Grant Wolf and the Mesa Community College Jazz Band. In addition, he coached the trumpets of the Musicians Union sponsored Young Sounds band. He performed in various bands in the Phoenix area. In late May or early June 1978, Bud appeared as a guest with the jazz-rock group "Matrix" and commented "I played as well as I have ever played." Less than a week later, he committed suicide.
External links
- http://www.seeleymusic.com/brisbois/
- http://www.seeleymusic.com/brisbois/brisart.htm – a thorough account of Brisbois' life
- http://nickbriz.home.mindspring.com/Brisbois/gen_Bud_Brisbois.html
- http://www.screamtrumpet.com/ – various sound files featuring Bud
- http://www.coretek.org/sterlingcreekmusic/soundarchives.html – Bill Tole Big Band featuring Bud
- http://www.bobgower.net/brisbois – high school music festival featuring Bud