Truman Eliot "Jack" Jenney (May 12, 1910 – December 16, 1945) was a jazz trombonist who might be best known for instrumental versions of the song Stardust

Stardust (song)

"Stardust" is an American popular song composed in 1927 by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics added in 1929 by Mitchell Parish. Originally titled "Star Dust", Carmichael first recorded the song at the Gennett Records studio in Richmond, Indiana...

. Born in Mason City, Iowa

Mason City, Iowa

Mason City is the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 28,079 in the 2010 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro Gordo and Worth counties....

, Jenney played with his father's band from age 11, his father was a musician and music teacher, but his first professional work began with Austin Wylie

Austin Wylie

Austin Wylie was an American jazz bandleader.Wylie led a dance band in the 1920s and early 1930s which operated as a territory band based out of Cleveland, Ohio, though he also broadcast on national radio. The band was sometimes billed as the Golden Pheasant Orchestra...

 in 1928. He would go on to work with Isham Jones

Isham Jones

Isham Jones was a United States bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.-Career:Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, to a musical and mining family, and grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, where he started his first band...

, Red Norvo

Red Norvo

Red Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments...

, Artie Shaw

Artie Shaw

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....

, Mal Hallett

Mal Hallett

Mal Hallett was an American jazz violinist and bandleader.Hallett was a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music. He played in France during World War I as a member of Al Moore's orchestra, and led his own band, primarily in New England, for much of the 1930s...

, and Waring's Pennsylvanians

Fred Waring

Fredrick Malcolm Waring was a popular musician, bandleader and radio-television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing." He was also a promoter, financial backer and namesake of the Waring Blendor, the first modern electric...

, and appear in the film Syncopation

Syncopation

In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...

. He also won the Down Beat

Down Beat

Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...

 Reader's Poll for trombone in 1940

He led his own band for a year in 1939-40, which included Peanuts Hucko

Peanuts Hucko

Michael Andrew "Peanuts" Hucko was an American big band musician. His primary instrument was the clarinet.-Early life and education:...

, Paul Fredricks

Paul Fredricks

Paul G. Fredricks was a German-American brass musician of the Big Bands Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He is known for his unique skills as a trumpeter and left his mark on a range of larger bands such as the orchestras of Alvino Rey, Charlie Spivak, Les Brown's Band of Renown, and Mel Torme's...

, and Hugo Winterhalter

Hugo Winterhalter

Hugo Winterhalter was an American musician.An easy listening arranger and composer, Winterhalter was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Mount St. Mary's near Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1931, where he played saxophone for the orchestra and sang in two of the choirs...

. Although this band received good reviews it was a financial failure. He would also be drafted into the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

. After his return he died of complications related to appendicitis

Appendicitis

Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...

 in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

.

He was married to singer Kay Thompson

Kay Thompson

Kay Thompson was an American author, composer, musician, actress and singer. She is best known as the creator of the Eloise children's books.-Background:Catherine Louise Fink was born in St...

 and later to Bonnie Lake. He is on occasion compared to Bix Beiderbecke

Bix Beiderbecke

Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...

as both came from Iowa and died young, but not because of any similarity in style or life history.

External links

• Jack Jenney Music Festival website