Carl Saunders

Carl Saunders (born August 2, 1942 in Indianapolis ) is an American jazz musician ( trumpet , flugelhorn , mellophone ), arranger , composer and big band leader .

Carl Saunders' uncle was the trumpeter and band leader Bobby Sherwood ; his mother Gail (Bobby's sister) was a singer with the Sherwood Orchestra and Stan Kenton . After years touring, when Carl was five, his mother settled in Los Angeles , where she lived with Carl's aunt Caroline and her husband, saxophonist Dave Pell . Saunders was influenced early on by the recordings of the Dave Pell Octet and its trumpeter Don Fagerquist .

As an autodidact, Saunders began playing the trumpet in high school; he appeared in school bands and after his graduation got his first job with Stan Kenton in the mellophone group of his orchestra, with whom he went on tour in 1961/62. He then played for Bobby Sherwood in 1962/63 and then moved to Las Vegas , where he played in show bands for the next 20 years and accompanied guest artists such as Ella Fitzgerald , Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra . Saunders also toured with Paul Anka and bandleaders Si Zentner , Harry James , Maynard Ferguson , Benny Goodman and Charlie Barnet . 1967/68 he was a soloist in the band of Buddy Rich .

In 1984 he moved to Los Angeles where he became lead trumpeter in Bill Holman's orchestra; He also worked in the Supersax formation , in the big bands of Bob Florence and Gerald Wilson ( Theme for Monterey , 1997) and in the Phil Norman Tentet. In 1994 he became a member of the Dave Pell Octet in the previous position of Don Fagerquist. He also worked with his own Carl Saunders Big Band , his sextet and a quartet; He has also worked on recordings of Frank Capp , Buddy Charles, the Joey DeFrancesco Bigband 1999, Bill Holman 1995, Shirley Horn ( You're My Thrill , 2000), the Vic Lewis West Coast All-Stars 1997, Dave Pike ( Peligroso , 2000 ) and Anthony Wilson (jazz guitarist) with. In 1996 a book with his compositions was published; The Cookbook .

Discographic notes

• 1995 Out of the blue
• 2000 Eclecticism
• 2002 Be Bop Big Band
• 2004 The Carl Saunders Sextet: Live in Union Square
• 2005 Can you dig being dug?
• 2007 The Lost Bill Holman Charts

Web links

• Carl Saunders' website
• Jazz & Ragtime in Indiana ( Memento from January 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

swell

• Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .