Chris Griffin (musician)

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Chris Griffin (actually Gordon Claude Griffin , born October 31, 1915 in Binghamton , New York , † June 18, 2005 in Danbury , Connecticut ) was an American jazz trumpeter of the swing era .

Live and act

Griffin learned the trumpet when he was twelve and moved to New York City at the age of twenty to work as a professional musician, initially with Charlie Barnet . After a brief guest appearance with Ben Pollack in 1936, he became a member of the Benny Goodman Orchestra, in which he formed the trumpet set with Harry James and Ziggy Elman , which Duke Ellington called the greatest trumpet section that ever was . In 1939, Griffin left the Goodman band. He married the band singer Helen O'Brien and worked for CBS radio in New York in the following years . As a member of the Bob Haggart Orchestra, he loved Ella Fitzgerald on her hit "That's My Desire"; the song hit # 3 on the Race Records chart in 1947 .

In the 1950s he was a musician on various television shows such as the Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Lucky Strike Hit Parade, The Phillip Morris Show and The Camel Caravan . He also worked as a freelance musician with Miff Mole and Teddy Wilson . In the 1960s he ran a trumpet school with Pee Wee Erwin . In 1971 he worked with Marty Napoleon . He also worked on recordings of Raymond Scott , Charlie Parker ("Temptation" 1952), Ella Fitzgerald , Billie Holiday , Mel Tormé , Frank Sinatra , Charlie Barnet, Mildred Bailey , Eddie Sauter and Tutti Camarata and is on the soundtrack of the biopic The Benny Hear Goodman Story (1956). Most recently, he ran a bed and breakfast with his family in Jeffersonville, New York .

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary at ( Memento of the original from March 31, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. All about jazz  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.allaboutjazz.com
  2. ^ Leonard Feather, Ira Gitler: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz , p. 491
personal data
SURNAME Griffin, Chris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Griffin, Gordon Claude
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Binghamton (New York)
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 2005
Place of death Danbury (Connecticut)