Harry Haag James was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized and was active again with his band from then until his death in 1983. He was especially known among musicians for his technical proficiency as well as his tone, and was influential on new trumpet players from the late 1930s into the 1940s. He was also an actor in a number of films that usually featured his band.
Neal Paul Hefti was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger. He wrote music for The Odd Couple movie and TV series and for the Batman TV series.
Harry "Sweets" Edison was an American jazz trumpeter and a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. His greatest impact was as a Hollywood studio musician, whose muted trumpet can be heard backing singers, most notably Frank Sinatra.
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time.
Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco was an Italian-American jazz clarinetist. In addition to his work as a bandleader, DeFranco led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for almost a decade in the 1960s and 1970s.
Charles James Shavers was an American jazz trumpeter who played with Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmie Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams, Tommy Dorsey, and Billie Holiday. He was also an arranger and composer, and one of his compositions, "Undecided", is a jazz standard.
Wilbur Dorsey "Buck" Clayton was an American jazz trumpeter who was a member of Count Basie's orchestra. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong, first hearing the record "Confessin' That I Love You" as he passed by a shop window.
Get Happy! is a 1959 album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, recorded with various studio orchestras over a two-year period.
Al Grey was an American jazz trombonist who was a member of the Count Basie orchestra. He was known for his plunger mute technique and wrote an instructional book in 1987 called Plunger Techniques.
The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 1950s, the band survived long past the Big Band era itself and the death of Basie in 1984. It continues under the direction of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart.
Ella and Basie! is a 1963 studio album by Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra, with arrangements by Quincy Jones and Benny Carter. It was later reissued with slightly different cover art as On the Sunny Side of the Street.
Ernest Brooks Wilkins Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist, conductor and arranger who spent several years with Count Basie. He also wrote for Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, and Dizzy Gillespie. He was musical director for albums by Cannonball Adderley, Dinah Washington, Oscar Peterson, and Buddy Rich.
Joe Mondragon was an American jazz bassist.
Willis Leonard Holman, known professionally as Bill Holman, is an American composer, arranger, conductor, saxophonist, and songwriter working in jazz and traditional pop. His career is over seven decades long, having started with the Charlie Barnet orchestra in 1950.
J. Hill is an American music arranger who worked extensively in his earlier years as a brass player in big bands, later on taking up music arranging. He has received three Emmy Awards. He created many arrangements for the Les Brown Orchestra. He eventually spread out into freelance arranging, doing charts for Lawrence Welk, Harry James and others. He also became chief arranger for the first four years of the Dean Martin Show, producing orchestrations for Dean and his co-stars to sing behind. He was eventually replaced on the show by Van Alexander who did the remainder of the show's run.
"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" is an American popular song published in 1931, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Ted Koehler, and first recorded by Cab Calloway in 1931. It was introduced in the 1931 Cotton Club show Rhythmania and is now a widely recorded standard.
This One's for Basie is a 1957 studio album by Buddy Rich and an eleven piece orchestra, recorded in tribute to bandleader Count Basie. The album was re-issued by Verve in the 1950s and again in the 1960s.
Oliver Edward Mitchell was an American musician and bandleader. He was the son of Harold Mitchell, lead trumpeter for MGM Studios, who also taught Ollie to play the trumpet.
Harry's Choice! is a studio album by American trumpeter Harry James with The Harry James Orchestra. The album was recorded in Hollywood, California in June, 1958 and released by Capitol Records on stereo LP (ST-1093), mono LP (T-1093), and a series of three EPs.
The New James is a studio album by American trumpeter Harry James with The Harry James Orchestra. The album was recorded April 1–3, 1958 and released by Capitol Records on stereo LP (ST-1037), mono LP (T-1037), and a series of three EPs.
