Sonny Dunham

Sonny Dunham's Bluebird record from "Mighty Lak'a Rose"

Sonny Dunham (born November 16, 1911 in Brockton (Massachusetts) as Elmer Lewis Dunham ; † July 9, 1990 ) was an American trumpeter and big band leader in the field of swing and popular music .

Life

Sonny Dunham began at the age of seven trumpet playing, with eleven years trombone . In his youth he performed with local bands; from 1929 and 1931 he was a member of Paul Tremaine's Orchestra, where he was also active as an arranger and band vocalist; then he switched to the trumpet. In March 1937 he left Tremaine and founded his first orchestra with the band name Sonny Lee and the New York Yankees , which he dissolved in November 1937. He then played in Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra and participated in their recordings for Decca ; his biggest success in this phase was the Eubie Blake number "Memories of You".

This encouraged him to leave the Casa Loma Orchestra and build up his own formation again; this was a 14-piece band, but it was not very successful. Dunham returned to the Casa Loma Orchestra , where he stayed for another eight years. In the spring he left Casa Loma for good and founded his ensemble Sonny Dunham and his Orchestra . This - stylistically influenced by Jimmie Lunceford's orchestra - was sponsored by a manufacturer of trumpet mouthpieces and was sent on a talent search for unknown, young trumpeters. It was in this way that Dunham finally discovered the young Pete Candoli . The orchestra performed in the great ballrooms of the United States, as well as in the New York Hotels, the New York and the Pennsylvania Hotels , the Tune Town and the Roseland Ballroom, and Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook and the Hollywood Palladium in 1942, where they also performed starred in a Universal Pictures Hollywood film ( Behind the Eight Bal ). Sonny Dunham also acted as musical director. His band was then also seen in the universal short film Jivin 'Jam Session . A soundie from 1942 was Sleepy Lagoon with the band singer Ray Kellogg.

Dunham recorded for the Bluebird , Hit and Vogue Records label. In addition to Pete Candoli, the career of a number of later well-known jazz musicians began in Dunham's band, such as u. a. Bob Bates , Conte Candoli , Emmett Carls , Corky Corcoran , Allen Eager , Moe Koffman , Don Lamond , Don Lanphere , Zoot Sims and Kai Winding as well as George Dale Williams as arranger. Band singers were Harriet Clark and Dorothy Claire and in 1943 Don Darcy and Billy Usher. At the end of the big band era , his orchestra had only a few opportunities to perform; so Sonny Dunham dissolved his orchestra in 1951 and worked with Tommy Dorsey .

He lived in Florida in the 1960s and worked with a smaller ensemble with whom he played primarily on cruise ships. After he had to end his active music career because of lip problems, he organized bands for the ship routes.

Appreciation

His trumpet playing up to the highest register earned him the nickname the Man from Mars ; He was therefore included in the very first Metronome All-Stars Band in 1939 , where he played with starting trumpeters such as Bunny Berigan , Charlie Spivak and Harry James . Dunham was the composer of the song "Come and Git It".

Web links

• Sonny Dunham in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Dunham in the Bigband database
• Dunham in the Bigband Library

swell

• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 .
• Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac . Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena. 1978.

Remarks

1. ↑ See Kunzler, p. 720.
2. ↑ Other members of this formation were Jack Teagarden , Benny Goodman , Hymie Schertzer , Arthur Rollini , Eddie Miller , Bob Zurke , Carmen Mastren , Bob Haggart and Ray Bauduc when the tracks "Blue Lou" and "The Blues" were recorded (January 11th 1939); see. Bielefeld Catalog 1988.