Leon Merian

Leon Merian (born September 17, 1923 in Braintree , Massachusetts , † August 15, 2007 in Sarasota ) was an American jazz musician ( trumpet ).

Live and act

Merian became enthusiastic about music at the age of ten after attending a concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with his mother . He then learned the trumpet and performed in local clubs when he was 16. From the mid-1940s he then worked in the New York jazz scene; The first recordings were made in 1946 with the Lucky Millinder orchestra , with whom he played until 1955. He has also worked on recordings for Jimmy Mundy , Bernie Mann , Pete Rugolo , Specs Powell , George Siravo , Tito Puente , Bull Moose Jackson and Boyd Raeburn . In 1957 he recorded the album The Magic Horn under his own name for Decca Records with a studio band (including Romeo Penque , Al Duffy , Bill Pemberton and Panama Francis ) ; This Time the Swing'o on Me (with Derek Smith , Perry Lopez , Clyde Lombardi , Earl Zindars ) and Fiorello , with Derek Smit, Lloyd Trotman and Bill Lavorgna followed in the early 1960s for the Seeco label . In the field of jazz he was involved in 22 recording sessions between 1946 and 1961. Merian wrote the textbook Trumpet Isometrics and the autobiography The Man Behind the Horn (2000).

As early as the mid-1950s, Merian was aiming for a career as a language teacher. He studied French at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Columbia University . In 1961 he obtained his bachelor's degree and in 1963 his master's degree. He then taught at New Rochelle High School in New York and Endicott College in Beverly until he retired in 1982 and returned to music.

Web links

• Leon Merian at Allmusic (English)
• Leon Merian at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Report of death at. Local 802, March 5, 2008, accessed July 12, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed July 12, 2018)