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Tommy Dorsey
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Tommy Dorsey (November 10, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey. His lyrical trombone style became one of the signature sounds of his band and of the Swing Era.
Early life
Thomas Francis Dorsey, Jr. was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. At age 15, his brother Jimmy recommended him to replace Russ Morgan in the seminal 1920s territory band "The Scranton Sirens".
Tommy and his brother Jimmy worked in several bands, including those of Rudy Vallee, Vincent Lopez, and especially Paul Whiteman, before forming the original Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in 1934.
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Encyclopedia
Tommy Dorsey (November 10, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey. His lyrical trombone style became one of the signature sounds of his band and of the Swing Era.
Early life
Thomas Francis Dorsey, Jr. was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. At age 15, his brother Jimmy recommended him to replace Russ Morgan in the seminal 1920s territory band "The Scranton Sirens".
Tommy and his brother Jimmy worked in several bands, including those of Rudy Vallee, Vincent Lopez, and especially Paul Whiteman, before forming the original Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in 1934. Glenn Miller was a member of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in 1934 and 1935, composing "Annie's Cousin Fanny" and "Dese Dem Dose" for the band. Ongoing acrimony between the brothers, however, led to Tommy Dorsey's walking out to form his own band in 1935, just as the Orchestra was having a hit with "Every Little Moment."
His own band
Tommy Dorsey's first band formed out of the remnant of the Joe Haymes band, and his smooth, lyrical trombone style – whether on ballads or on no-holds-barred swingers – became one of the signature sounds of both his band and the Swing Era. The new band hit from almost the moment it signed with RCA Victor with "On Treasure Island", the first of four hits for the new band that year. That led to a run of 137 Billboard chart hits, including his theme song, "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" (which showcases his phenomenal range and masterful mute use, reaching up to the high C #), "Marie", "The Big Apple", "Music, Maestro, Please", "I'll Never Smile Again", "This Love of Mine", "On the Sunny Side of the Street", "T.D.'s Boogie Woogie", "Well, Git 'It", "Opus One", "Manhattan Serenade", and "There Are Such Things" – among many others. Tommy Dorsey had a total of 17 no.1 singles. "I'll Never Smile Again" was no.1 for 12 weeks on the Billboard Best Sellers chart in 1940. "In the Blue of Evening" was no.1 for three weeks on the Billboard pop singles chart in 1943.
The band featured a number of the best instrumentalists in jazz at the time, including trumpeters Bunny Berigan, Ziggy Elman, George Seaberg, Carl "Doc" Severinsen, and Charlie Shavers, pianists Milt Raskin, Jess Stacy, trumpeter/arranger/composer Sy Oliver (who wrote "Well, Git 'It" and "Opus One"), clarinetists Buddy DeFranco, Johnny Mince and Peanuts Hucko drummers Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, Gene Krupa and Dave Tough and singers Jack Leonard, Edythe Wright, Jo Stafford, Dick Haymes, Connie Haines and Frank Sinatra, and the close-harmony singing group The Pied Pipers. Sinatra achieved his first great success as a vocalist in the Dorsey band and claimed he learned breath control from watching Dorsey play trombone. Dorsey said his trombone style was heavily influenced by that of Jack Teagarden. Another member of the Dorsey band probably spent considerable time observing and listening to Sy Oliver's striking arrangements: trombonist Nelson Riddle, whose later partnership as Sinatra's major arranger and conductor is considered to have revolutionised post-World War II popular music.
Dorsey might have broken up his own band permanently following World War II, as many big bands did due to the shift in music economics following the war, and he did disband the orchestra at the end of 1946. But a top-ten selling album (All-Time Hits) made it possible for Dorsey to re-organise a big band in early 1947.
The biographical film of 1947, The Fabulous Dorseys describes sketchy details of how the brothers got their start from-the-bottom-up into the jazz era of one-nighters, the early days of radio in its infancy stages, and the onward march when both brothers ended up with Paul Whiteman before 1935 when The Dorsey Brothers' Orchestra split into two.
The Dorsey brothers themselves later reconciled – Jimmy Dorsey had had to break up his own highly successful big band in 1953, and brother Tommy invited him to join up as a feature attraction – but before long Tommy renamed the band the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. On December 26, 1953, the brothers appeared with their orchestra on Jackie Gleason's CBS television show, which was preserved on kinescope and later released on home video by Gleason. The brothers took the unit on tour and onto their own television show, Stage Show, from 1954 to 1956, on which they introduced Elvis Presley to national television audiences, among others.
Compositions by Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey composed several popular songs of the Swing Era, including "To You" and "This is No Dream", co-written with Benny Davis and Ted Shapiro in 1939; "You Taught Me To Love Again" in 1939, with music by Tommy Dorsey and Henri Woode and lyrics by Charles Carpenter, recorded by Gene Krupa and Sarah Vaughan; "In the Middle of a Dream" in 1939 with Al Stillman and Einar Aaron Swan, recorded by Glenn Miller and Red Norvo; "Three Moods"; "Night in Sudan" (1939); "The Morning After" in 1937 with Moe Jaffe and Clay Boland, also recorded by Red Norvo; "Peckin' with the Penguins", co-written with Deane Kincaide from the 1938 short movie feature Porky's Spring Planting; "You Can't Cheat a Cheater" with Frank Signorelli and Phil Napoleon; and, "Trombonology", based on the answers.com and IMDB databases. Based on the collection of sheet music of the U.S. Library of Congress, Tommy Dorsey co-wrote "Chris and His Gang" in 1938 with Fletcher and Horace Henderson and "Nip and Tuck" with Fred Norman in 1946. "To You" was recorded in 1939 by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, Ella Fitzgerald, and by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. "This is No Dream" was recorded by Harry James and his Orchestra featuring Frank Sinatra on vocals and by Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra with vocals by Judy Ellington.
Number One Hits
Tommy Dorsey had seventeen number one hits with his orchestra in the 1930s and 1940s: "On Treasure Island", "The Music Goes 'Round and Around", "Alone", "You", "Marie", "Satan Takes a Holiday", "The Big Apple", "Once in a While", "The Dipsy Doodle", "Music, Maestro, Please", "Our Love", "All the Things You Are", "Indian Summer", "I'll Never Smile Again", "There Are Such Things", "In the Blue of Evening", and "Dolores". He had two more number one hits in 1935 when he was a member of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra: "Lullaby of Broadway", number one for two weeks, and "Chasing Shadows", number one for three weeks. His biggest hit was "I'll Never Smile Again", featuring Frank Sinatra on vocals, which was number one for twelve weeks on the Billboard pop singles chart in 1940.
Death and aftermath
In 1956, Tommy Dorsey died at age 51 in his Greenwich, Connecticut home, choking in his sleep after a heavy meal following which he had taken sleeping pills. Jimmy Dorsey (out of whose band Tommy had walked two decades earlier) led his brother's band until his own death of throat cancer the following year. At that point, trombonist Warren Covington assumed leadership of the band with, presumably, Jane Dorsey's blessing (she owned the rights to her late husband's band and name) and it produced, ironically enough, the biggest selling hit record ever released under the Dorsey name. Billed as the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Starring Warren Covington, they topped the charts in 1958 with Tea For Two Cha-Cha. Covington led the Dorsey band through 1970 (he also led and recorded with his own organisation), after which Jane Dorsey renamed it, simply, , which is conducted today by Buddy Morrow, featuring vocalist . Jane Dorsey died of natural causes around the age of 79 in 2003.
Married life
Dorsey's married life was varied and, at times, headline-making. His first wife was 16-year-old Mildred Kraft, with whom he eloped in 1922, when he was 17. They had two children, Patricia and Tom (nicknamed "Skipper"). They divorced in 1943 after Dorsey's affair with singer Edythe Wright He then wed movie actress Pat Dane in 1943, and they were divorced in 1947, but not before he gained headlines for striking actor Jon Hall when Hall embraced his wife Pat. Finally, Dorsey married Jane Earl New (b. 23 October 1923 in Dublin, Laurens County, Georgia; d. 24 August 2003 in Bay Harbor Island, Miami-Dade County, Florida) on 27 March 1948 in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, and had two children, Catherine Susan and Steve. She remained his wife until his death. She had been a dancer at the world-renowned Copacabana.
Tommy and Jane Dorsey are interred together in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
Honors
Frank Sinatra released a tribute album to Tommy Dorsey in 1961 entitled I Remember Tommy. The arrangements were by another Dorsey alumnus, Sy Oliver.
In 1982, the 1940 Victor recording "I'll Never Smile Again", Victor 26628, by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, featuring Frank Sinatra and The Pied Pipers on vocals, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The Tommy Dorsey single was number one for 12 weeks on Billboard in 1940, from the week of July 27 to October 12. Tommy Dorsey also released the song as a V-Disc, V-Disc 582, with Frank Sinatra on vocals.
In 1996, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative Tommy Dorsey and Jimmy Dorsey postage stamp.
In 1981, Tommy Dorsey was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
Selected recordings
- Marie, vocals by Jack Lawrence
- You Can't Cheat a Cheater
- You Taught Me to Love Again
- I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
- The Music Goes 'Round and Around, Edythe Wright on vocals with the Clambake Seven
- Alone
- Night in Sudan, 1939
- On Treasure Island, Edythe Wright
- Satan Takes a Holiday
- This Love of Mine, 1941, Frank Sinatra on vocals, reached no.3 on Billboard
- You
- The Big Apple, Edythe Wright with the Clambake Seven
- In the Middle of a Dream
- Three Moods
- Peckin' with the Penguins
- Music, Maestro, Please, Edythe Wright on vocals
- All the Things You Are, Jack Lawrence on vocals
- To You, 1939
- The Morning After, 1937
- Song of India, 1937
- This is No Dream, 1939
- The Dipsy Doodle, with Edythe Wright
- Our Love
- Once in a While
- Indian Summer, vocals by Jack Lawrence
- Dolores
- I'll Never Smile Again, vocals by Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford, and the Pied Pipers, no.1 for 12 weeks on Billboard in 1940
- There Are Such Things
- Manhattan Serenade
- Opus One
- In the Blue of Evening, no.1 for 3 weeks on Billboard in 1943
- Trombonology
Discography
- Stop, Look and Listen
- 1939, Vol No. 3
- Homefront: 1941–1945
- The Early Jazz Sides: 1931–1937
- All-Time Greats Dorsey/Sinatra Hits, Vol 1–4
- The V-Disc Recordings
- It's D'Lovely 1947–1950
- The Complete Tommy Dorsey, Vol. 2 (1936)
- Stardust
- Greatest Hits
- Sentimental
- Opus One
- 1937–1938
- The Fabulous Dorsey
- Greatest Hits (RCA)
- Tommy Dorsey, Vol. 1
- 1938, Vol. 2
- At the Fat Man's
- All-Time Greatest Dorsey/Sinatra Hits, Vol. 3
- All-Time Greatest Dorsey/Sinatra Hits, Vol. 2
- The Complete Standard Transcriptions
- Having a Wonderful Time
- The Complete Tommy Dorsey, Vol 1 (1935)
- Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra: The Seventeen Number Ones, 1935-1942, BMG/RCA
Filmography
Tommy Dorsey (and members of his band) appeared in the following films:
External links
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