Bobby Sherwood
Robert J. "Bobby" Sherwood (* May 30, 1914 in Indianapolis, Indiana; † January 23, 1980 in Auburn, Massachusetts ) was an American jazz musician ( banjo, guitar, trumpet and trombone), arranger and big band leader in the range of swing and popular music as well as actor and radio presenter.
Life and work
Sherwood has already appeared as a child on the vaudeville group of his parents. In 1933 he came to the West Coast of the United States and was the successor to the guitarist Eddie Lang in Bing Crosby's band, which he was a member until 1942. As an arranger, he was, inter alia, tatig for Tommy Dorsey, Larry Clinton, Artie Shaw, Charlie Barnet and Benny Goodman. He worked at this time as a studio musician in the music department of MGM, led the backing band for Eddie Cantor's radio show; 1940 he played briefly with Artie Shaw and directed some of Judy Garland's early recordings for the label Decca whose band. During this time, Sherwood was married to Judy Garland's sister Dorothy.
1942 Sherwood founded in Los Angeles his own band, which occurred mainly in the Los Angeles area and for which he received a contract with the newly founded label Capitol Records. At the very first recording session Sherwood's composition " Elk 's Parade " was recorded, which was a great sales success and the theme song of the band. The great success of the title then led to a national tour, but it arose due to the strike records at present no further recordings. Band singer at the time was Kitty Kallen ( "Moonlight Becomes You " ), but soon left the band and started a solo career. 1946 occurred in the newly opened Avadon Baalroom; Sherwood himself moved mostly between trumpet and guitar, sometimes he also played trombone. Important musicians of this phase were Dave Pell and Flip Phillips.
In October 1946, Bobby Sherwood joined briefly in a Broadway show, Hear That Trumpet as an actor; In 1947 he returned to Los Angeles with his band and had a long involvement in the casino Gardens. This was followed by three recording sessions, although Sherwood the actual live band broke up in 1949 and now worked primarily as a stage actor and radio presenter; 1950 Mercury arisen for two 78rpm records under the band name Bobby Sherwood & His Orchestra; However, it played a pure studio band from Kai Winding, Hymie Schertzer and Babe Russin. In 1954 he took two singles for Coral ( '78 / '45 ) as Bobby Sherwood - The One Man Band on; while he played all the instruments of the four titles. During this time, even an LP for Jubilee Records was born. In 1957, he briefly returned with a show band into the music business and occurred in the casinos of Nevada.
Between 1938 and 1957 he appeared as an actor in several TV series and movies, most recently in 1957 in Pal Joey next to Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak. After that, he worked primarily in radio.
Disco Graphical Notes
In the 1990s and 2000s, his recordings have been in several albums (among Issued Recordings 1942-1947, 1999; Sherwood 's Forest, 2000; Suddenly It's Swing, 2004; Suddenly It's Swing, 2005) reissued.
Swell
- Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac. Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena. 1978