Boyd Raeburn
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Boyd Raeburn | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Boyd Albert Raeburn |
Born | Faith, South Dakota, U.S. | October 27, 1913
Died | 2 August 1966 Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S. | (aged 52)
Genres | Jazz |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instruments | Saxophone |
Boyd Albert Raeburn (October 27, 1913 – August 2, 1966) was an American jazz bandleader and bass saxophonist.
Career[]
Raeburn attended the University of Chicago, where he led a campus band. He gained his earliest experience as a commercial bandleader at Chicago's World Fair (1933–1934).[1] For the rest of the decade, he worked in dance bands, sometimes leading them.[2]
In the next decade, the group passed through swing before becoming identified with the bop school.[1] His later big band, which was active c. 1944-1947, performed arrangements that were often comprable to those used by Woody Herman and the "progressive jazz" of Stan Kenton during the same period.[2] The compositions arranged by George Handy were the most contemporary, utilizing dissonance somewhat in the manner of Igor Stravinsky.[citation needed] Johnny Richards joined in 1947, following Handy and stayed for a year writing 50 compsoitions.[2]
Later life and death[]
Raeburn's second wife was the singer Ginny Powell, for whom he wrote "Rip Van Winkle". The couple married in 1946,[1] had two children.[3] As well as singing with her husband's group, Powell also sang with Harry James and Gene Krupa.[3] Raeburn left music in the mid-1950s.[2] Powell died in Nassau in the Bahamas in 1959 from meningitis; the couple had moved there.[3] He settled in New Orleans and ran a furniture store.[4]
Raeburn died from a heart attack in 1966, aged 52. Boyd Raeburn's first wife was Lorraine Anderson, with whom he had one child; the union ended in divorce. His son with Powell, Bruce Boyd Raeburn[3] of New Orleans, was the curator of the William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz at the Tulane University in New Orleans until December 2017.[3]
Discography[]
- Boyd Meets Stravinski (Savoy, 1955)
- Man with the Horns (Savoy, 1955)
- Dance Spectacular (Columbia, 1956)
- Fraternity Rush (Columbia, 1957)
- On the Air Vol. 1 (Hep, 1974)
- Rhythms by Raeburn (Aircheck, 1977)
- Experiments in Big Band Jazz 1945 (Musicraft, 1980)
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Boyd Raeburn, 52, Band Leader, Dies; His Orchestra's Bop Style Influenced Postwar Jazz". The New York Times. August 4, 1966. p. 32. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Stokes, W. Royal (April 22, 1979). "Swinging Back to a '40s Sound". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Shaw, Lew (January 1, 2018). "Bruce Boyd Raeburn Retires From Hogan Jazz Archive". Syncopatedtimes.com. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ Jordan, Steve; Scanlan, Tom (1993) [1991]. "Rhythm Man: Fifty Years in Jazz". Ann Arbor: University of Micghigan Press. p. 58.
External links[]
Media related to Boyd Raeburn at Wikimedia Commons
- "Changing Personalities: Eastman Chamber Jazz Explores the Music of Boyd Raeburn", November 8, 2016.
- Boyd Raeburn biography[dead link], allmusic.com; accessed February 8, 2018.
- Boyd Raeburn discography[dead link], allmusic.com; accessed February 8, 2018.
- Boyd Raeburn biography, parabrisas.com; accessed February 8, 2018.
- Boyd Raeburn music collection, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University
- 1913 births
- 1966 deaths
- Jazz bandleaders
- Jazz bass saxophonists
- People from Faith, South Dakota
- Savoy Records artists
- Disease-related deaths in Louisiana
- 20th-century saxophonists
- Columbia Records artists
- Musicraft Records artists
- Hep Records artists
- American jazz musician stubs