Tommy Dorsey: The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing

Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey grew up in the coal mining area of Shenandoah, Pa. Their father worked in the mines, taught music, and led the local band. He taught Jimmy and Tommy how to play cornet, then taught Jimmy alto saxophone and Tommy trombone. Their father taight them very well. The Dorsey boys became excellent musicians.

Like other brothers, the Dorseys often fought. Jimmy, the timid one, could tee off Tommy with a simple statement or question.

On May 30, 1935, the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra was playing at the prestigious Glen Island Casino. This was a band that their friend Glenn Miller helped them to assemble. Miller did most of the band's arrangements and also played trombone.

Tommy, who was conducting, beat off the tempo for "I'll Never Say Never Again." Jimmy, playing in the sax section, called out, "Isn't that a little too fast, Mac? Let's do it right or not at all."

"All right!" Tommy shouted! "We won't do it at all!" Tommy turned and walked off the stage. The Dorsey brothers went their separate ways until 1953.

THE SWING ERA

The IncomparableTommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra

During the next decade, Tommy outscored Jimmy hit for hit, dollar for dollar, but both did very well. Tommy had a strong business sense, which enabled him to live very comfortably. His Long Island mansion even had a 50-foot long Lionel train layout in the basement—something Frank Sinatra really admired. Years later, Sinatra built one that surpassed Tommy's on his estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif., in a specially designed building resembling the train station in Ramsey, N.J. Sinatra modeled it not on Tommy's but on the larger layout in the Lionel Trains showroom in New York City circa 1949.

Tommy's acute business sense dovetailed nicely with his musical genius. He insisted on top talent for his band. Looking back, you'll find more than 50 jazz legends passed through his band during the decade of 1935-1945, the Swing Era.

Just as Tommy knew how to present his instrumentalists, he knew how to showcase his vocalists. For example, listen to any of his songs with Jo Stafford and The Pied Pipers, or Frank Sinatra, together or solo, and you'll see how very well Tommy provided a terrific musical backdrop for them.

There is a story trumpeter Charlie Shavers told about how Tommy could not tolerate incompetence. Shavers related how Tommy once kept a piano player around whom he couldn't stand, just to make the guy's life miserable. Dorsey also had a generous side, too, often paying personal expenses, such as medical bills, for his sidemen and their families.

Dorsey impressed everyone with his marvelous playing. Sinatra always credited Dorsey for teaching him, by example, about breath control and phrasing. Tommy inhaled through the side of his mouth while the last of his previous breath passed through his horn. Listening to his recordings, one after another, attests to this remarkable technique.

Tommy often drew material from unusual sources. Listen to the band swing "March Of The Toys" from Victor Herbert's 1903 operetta "Babes in Toyland" or "Rollin' Home" from the "Largo" for Anton Dvorak's "New World Symphony." Swingin' the classics was fairly common during the Swing Era, but no one ever did it better than Dorsey. Another unusual source was Spike Jones, who had a real genius for hiring excellent musicians to play some of the funniest music this side of heaven. Spike's 1942 recording of "Chloe" was a blockbuster. Tommy had Bill Finegan arranged it for his band, and once again Dorsey had another hit on his hands.

Tommy was always the key to his band. John S. Wilson once wrote: "The band was, initially, a result of his trigger-tempered nature and, eventually, a reflection of his demanding sense of perfection."

Winnowing out musicians became a Dorsey trademark. By 1940, Dorsey featured top talent from other bands. Buddy Rich came over from Artie Shaw's band, trumpeter Ziggy Elman and lead sax player Hymie Schertzer from Benny Goodman's, and Frank Sinatra (replacing Allan DeWitt, who had recently replaced Jack Leonard) and Connie Haines from Harry James. Joe Bushkin took the piano chair. Bunny Berigan, one of the stars of the early Dorsey band, returned to the trumpet section for a few months while he was in between leading his own bands.

Tommy and his band turned out one hit after another, often rivaling and sometimes surpassing Glenn Miller's on Your Hit Parade. Among Tommy's biggest hits were Sy Oliver's originals, "Well, Git It!" and "Yes, Indeed!" and Sy's arrangements of "Swanee River" and "Deep River," plus many of Frank Sinatra's numbers, including "I'll Never Smile Again," "This Love Of Mine," 'There Are Such Things," and "Without A Song," Jo Stafford's "Embraceable You" and "For You," and a string of hits by Jo Stafford and The Pied Pipers.

One of the best records Jo Stafford and The Pied Pipers recorded with Tommy Dorsey was "Blues In The Night" in March 1942, but it would not be released for more than 20 years because of an argument later that year.

Jo Stafford was still a member of The Pied Pipers, but she often sang solos. She and The Pied Pipers had a blow-up on Thanksgiving Day 1942 with Tommy Dorsey at a Portland, Ore. train station. At issue: Who had given a redcap the wrong direction? The upshot: The Pied Pipers and Jo Stafford left Tommy Dorsey, never to return.

Unlike many other big band leaders, Tommy kept his band together during the late 1940s as vocalists replaced big bands in the public's eye. Jimmy tried to keep his band going, too. In 1953, after their celebrated break-up 18 years earlier, The Dorsey Brothers reunited. During their 18-years apart, Tommy had been one of Jimmy's biggest fans. He often brought his musicians and friends to hear Jimmy's band.

They made a successful transition to television in the mid 1950s, hosting one of my favorite hours every week. Then, in November 1956, Tommy died suddenly. He was only 51 years old. A few months later, Jimmy died. It was the end of the Dorsey Era—and what an era it was!

A PERSONAL NOTE

Tommy Dorsey was one of the best musicians of the 20th Century who led what many consider to be the finest big band of the Swing Era.

In June 2003, I listened to many Dorsey songs I hadn't played for awhile. The more I listened to Dorsey's music, and particularly to his own trombone playing, the more I wanted to hear. The result: I listened and listened and eventually transferred 60 of Tommy Dorsey's songs to Tuxedo Junction. His music is that infectious! These Dorsey songs are in the three audio players at the top of this page.

Sometimes it was like hearing Dorsey for the first time, and maybe I did. Even his earliest recordings sound great to me today. What might begin as a tame arrangement can suddenly take off into a hip swing number.

Marty Marsala (trumpet) and Bud Freeman (tenor) at Jimmy Ryan's in New York City circa 1947. Photograph courtesy of William P. Gottlieb. Click here to visit Bill Gottlieb's web pages on the Library of Congress web site.

Marty Marsala (trumpet) and Bud Freeman (tenor) at Jimmy Ryan's in New York City around 1947. Photograph courtesy of William P. Gottlieb. Visit Bill Gottlieb's web pages on the Library of Congress web site.

One of my Chicago friends in the early 1980's was the legendary tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman, who played with Tommy Dorsey in the mid 1930s. Bud was a great storyteller who captured my attention for hours and hours. Like many jazz musicians, Bud preferred playing in small groups, but he worked in big bands during the 1930s and 1940s because that's where the best money was.

Bud and Tommy must have been a great pair. Bud related how he quit Tommy's band twice—and how Tommy fired him three times! Like so many other musicians, Bud deeply admired Tommy's genius with the trombone. "There will never be another like him," Bud said.

As you listen to the Tommy Dorsey sides on Tuxedo Junction, one after another shows Dorsey's talent on trombone, enough to make us want to hear more and more, over and over.

All this would be enough, but then we have the great instrumentalists with his band, like Buddy Rich on drums, Charlie Shavers and Bunny Berigan on trumpets, and Buddy DeFranco on clarinet ("Buddy’s just about one of the world’s greatest clarinet players," George Shearing once told me). And many more....

Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra That would be enough, but we have more: the vocalists. Listening to these Frank Sinatra recordings again, and the first time I've listened to a lot of of Sinatra's music since he died in 1998, is an eye-opener. You're hearing Sinatra at the beginning of his recording career, backed by one of the finest bands in the business. Knowing just how successful Sinatra would become, it is fun to listen to these sides, to hear Sinatra as if it were 1941 again....

(Photo left: Tommy and Frank at recording session in 1941.)

That would be enough, but then we have Jo Stafford (photo right) and The Pied Pipers. Jo solo or with The Pied Pipers is terrific! Embraceable You and For You are my favorites by Jo alone, but when you add the Pied Pipers, with Jo centerstage, you hear one of the finest vocal groups of the Swing Era. Add Frank Sinatra and together they are dynamite!

And this would be enough, but then Sy Oliver came along in mid-1939 from Jimmy Lunceford's band. His arrangements gave a real lift to Tommy Dorsey's band right off the bat. This is big band music at its best! Of course, Tommy had other excellent arrangers, including Bill Finegan, Nelson Riddle, Alex Stordahl, Paul Weston, but Oliver was the best, the one who gave Tommy his distinctive, swinging style.

And all this would be enough, but we keep hearing and loving Tommy Dorsey's trombome. Man, no one plays like that, no one ever has, and no one ever will. Pure genius!

The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (1935)—Tommy Dorsey is standing, leading the band, holding his trombone. Jimmy Dorsey is seated, playing alto. Behind him is arranger and band organizer Glenn Miller on trombone. Vocalists Bob Crosby and Edythe Wright are seated in front row.

To top it all off, I've included the early Dorsey Brother's 1935 recording of Annie's Cousin Fanny, written and arranged by Dorsey's trombonist Glenn Miller. This is a silly novelty song, fun to hear. I remember reading about it in George Simon's biography of Glenn Miller. Until now, I didn't even know I had it in my collection!

I remember watching The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra on television in the mid-1950s. It gave me a chance to see and hear two legends from the big band era. As a teenager, I liked this music from long, long ago, as it then seemed to me. After all, it was the music I heard my parents and my mother's two sisters listen to on the radio way, way back in the distant 1940s, when I was a little boy!

I remember, too, when I heard about Tommy Dorsey's death in November 1956. He was only 51. A few months later, his slightly older (by 18 months) brother, Jimmy, passed away. And then Jimmy's record company released his last recording, So Rare, which soared to the top of the charts. So Rare became Jimmy Dorsey's best-selling record, but he never lived to see it happen.