- Jimmy Deuchar
James 'Jimmy' Deuchar (b.
26 June 1930 , d.9 September 1993 , inDundee ), was ajazz trumpet er and big band arranger, born inDundee ,Scotland who found fame as a performer and arranger in the 1950s and 1960s - a golden era ofBritish jazz .He is certainly the most successful jazz musician to come out of Dundee, and one of Scotland's genuine contributors to the history of jazz. He was taught trumpet by John Lynch, who learned bugle as a boy soldier in the First World War and who later was Director of Brass Music for Dundee.
Career
After
National Service , Jimmy worked with the seminal British modern jazz unit, theJohnny Dankworth Seven (1950 - 51). During the 1950s, he worked with a number of commercial bands, such as theOscar Rabin Band , and also intermittently withRonnie Scott . In the late 1950s he worked withKurt Edelhagen ’s orchestra inGermany . He returned to the UK and worked again with Scott (1960 - 62) and withTubby Hayes (1962 - 66). As a highly gifted player and a leading exponent of the “modern” style, he was in some demand and achieved success as a touring player inEurope and theUnited States . He also “sat in” with leading American players at Ronnie Scott’s club as musical exchanges were liberalised at the start of the sixties.Jimmy returned to work with Edelhagen in 1966. Also during the sixties and early seventies, he worked with
The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band , a big band featuring leading European and ex-patriate American musicians.He returned to
London around 1971, working freelance, and then to Dundee in the mid 1970s. He continued to arrange, play and guest in a number of settings, including with London-based bands until his health began to deteriorate.Jazz critic Alun Morgan has suggested (in the "Gramophone" Good Jazz CD Guide) that, along with Yugoslav
Dusko Goykovich and SwedeRolf Ericson , Jimmy was one of only three European jazz trumpeters who were up to the standard of leading Americans in the early days of modern jazz.ources
John Chilton, Who's Who of British Jazz, Cassell, London 1997
Carr, Fairweather & Priestley, Jazz - the Essential Companion, Grafton Books, London 1987
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