- Don Butterfield
-
Don Butterfield Birth name Donald Butterfield Born April 1, 1923 Origin Centralia, Washington, USA Died November 27, 2006 (aged 83)
Clifton, New JerseyGenres Jazz, classical Occupations Musician Instruments Tuba Years active 1940s–2005 Labels Atlantic Associated acts Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jimmy Smith, many others Don Butterfield (April 1, 1923 – November 27, 2006) was an American jazz and classical tuba player.
Contents
Biography
Butterfield took up tuba in high school. He wanted to play trumpet, but the band director assigned him to tuba instead. After serving in the U.S. Military from 1942-46 he went on to study the instrument at Juilliard School, a prestigious music conservatory in New York.
He started his professional career in the late 1940s playing for the CBS and NBC radio networks. He played in orchestras, including the American Symphony, on albums by Jackie Gleason until he became a full time member at the Radio City Music Hall.
In the 1950s, he switched to jazz, backing such artists as Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jimmy Smith, and Moondog. He fronted his own sextet for a 1955 album on Atlantic Records and played the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.
In the 1970s he worked as a session musician. He played on recordings for a variety of artists and on television and film soundtracks, including The Godfather Part II.
The Grove dictionary of music calls his playing style, "uncommonly florid, a skill that made him of value as a jazz musician... He was one of the first modern jazz players who, rather than simply marking out the bass line, rediscovered the possibility of bringing to the instrument a facility akin to that of a trumpeter."
Butterfield suffered a stroke in 2005, which left him unable to play, and his death was from a stroke-related illness.
Discography
As Sideman
With Cannonball Adderley
- African Waltz (Riverside, 1961)
- Domination (Capitol, 1965)
With Nat Adderley
- Autobiography (Atlantic, 1964)
With David Amram
- Subway Night (RCA, 1972)
With Donald Byrd
- I'm Tryin' to Get Home (Blue Note, 1965)
With Bill Evans
- Symbiosis (MPS, 1974)
With Roland Kirk
- The Roland Kirk Quartet Meets the Benny Golson Orchestra (Mercury, 1963)
With Gil Mellé
- Gil's Guests (Prestige, 1963)
With Charles Mingus
- The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (Impulse!, 1963)
- Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse!, 1963)
With Wes Montgomery
- Movin' Wes (Verve, 1964)
With Lee Morgan
- Delightfulee (Blue Note, 1966)
With Oliver Nelson
- The Kennedy Dream (Impulse!, 1967)
With Oscar Peterson
- Bursting Out with the All-Star Big Band! (Verve, 1962)
With Sonny Rollins
- Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass (Metro Jazz, 1958)
With Jimmy Smith
- The Cat (Verve, 1964)
With Billy Taylor
- My Fair Lady Loves Jazz (Impulse!, 1957)
With Clark Terry
- Top & Bottom Brass (Riverside/OJC, 1959)
With The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra
- New Life (A&M, 1975)
References
- Acclaimed tuba player dies, Associated Press, November 29, 2006 (retrieved via Forbes on December 1, 2006).
External links
Categories:- 1923 births
- 2006 deaths
- American military personnel of World War II
- American session musicians
- Deaths from stroke
- American jazz tubists
- American classical tubists
- Juilliard School alumni
- People from Clifton, New Jersey
- People from Centralia, Washington
- American jazz musician stubs
- American brass musician stubs
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.