Russ Morgan

Russ Morgan (born April 29, 1904 in Scranton , Pennsylvania , † August 7, 1969 in Las Vegas ) was an American band leader , pianist , trombonist and composer .

Morgan's father was a Pennsylvania coal miner of Welsh ancestry - he played drums in a band in his spare time. His mother was a pianist in a vaudeville show before they married . Morgan also worked in the mine to take the strain off the family; in addition, at the age of fourteen he played the piano in a theater. In 1921 he played the trombone with the Scranton Sirens , a popular local band that also formed Tommy Dorsey and Jimmy Dorsey . In 1922 he went to New York, worked as an arranger for John Philip Sousa, among others, and toured Europe in the mid-1920s with Paul Specht's orchestra . After his return he was band leader for Jean Goldkette in Detroit, where he also met the Dorsey brothers again and musicians such as Joe Venuti , Eddie Lang and Bix Beiderbecke . In 1935 he recorded on the piano with Joe Venuti and as a trombonist with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band . For a short time he arranged for Fletcher Henderson in 1934 .

He had great success as music director of the WXYZ radio station in Detroit, where he had the popular show Music in the Morgan Manner .

After a car accident that nearly ended his career, he moved back to New York City, where he arranged for Broadway shows and played the trombone and piano in orchestras such as Freddy Martin's . There he also developed his wah-wah tone while playing the trombone. He also worked at Brunswick Records early on. Following the encouragement of the entertainer Rudy Vallée , he founded his own orchestra (with Martin's as a model), which played at the Biltmore Hotel. They had engagements in hotels across the country and Morgan was also the musical director of several radio shows for NBC and CBS.

In 1944 he was one of the composers of You're Nobody til Somebody Loves You (with Larry Stock, James Cavanaugh) and his band was the first to record him.

In 1949 he had chart successes at Decca with So Tired , Cruising Down the River , Sunflower , Forever and Ever and Dogface Soldier (the latter based on a film by Audie Murphy ).

His dance band was also successful in the 1950s. At that time his sons Jack (trombone), who took over the band after their father's death in 1969, and David (guitar) also played in the band.

From 1965 to 1977 the band had an engagement at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas. The band still exists.

In 1937 he won the Down Beat Poll as a trombonist in the Sweet Music division (ironically called corn in jazz magazine at the time ). Morgan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Web links

• Russ Morgan Orchestra website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Freddy Martin at Solid ( Memento of the original from April 30, 2007 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.