Johnny Best

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Johnny Best (* 20th October 1913 in Shelby (North Carolina) as Johnny McClanian junior ; † 20th September 2003 in La Jolla (California)) was an American jazz trumpeter of Swing .

Live and act

Best played the piano as a child; from 1927 he learned the trumpet . During his college years he played with the Sunnyland Serenaders , then with the Duke Blue Devils . He started his career in 1934 with Les Brown and then played with Charlie Barnet and Artie Shaw (1937-1939). From 1939 to 1942 he was a member of Glenn Miller's orchestra . He then moved to Bob Crosby before he was drafted into military service and worked in the military bands of Shaw and (1942-1943) and Sam Donahue (1944-1945). After working for Benny Goodman (1945-1946), he moved to Hollywood to work in the NBC studio .

He also worked in the film The Glenn Miller Story . In 1953 he toured with Billy May and also formed his own band in the 1950s. He also worked as an avocado breeder . In 1964 he was with Crosby in Japan; he also worked in night clubs like the Honeybucket in San Diego . In the 1970s he was on the road with Ray Conniff as well as with The World's Greatest Jazz Band , where he replaced the stylistically quite similar Billy Butterfield . Despite a serious fall in his avocado garden in 1982, which made him dependent on a wheelchair , he continued his musical activities: he was in Japan with Zeke Zarchy in 1990; In 1992 he visited the UK with the Glenn Miller Alumni Reunion .

Best can also be heard on recordings by Johnny Mercer , Hoagy Carmichael , the Andrew Sisters , Al Jolson and Mildred Bailey . According to Digby Fairweather he is considered "one of the best and most underrated swing trumpeters".

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