James "Jimmy" Dorsey (
February 29, 1904 –
June 12, 1957) was a prominent
jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter and
big band leader.
Jimmy Dorsey was born in
Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of a music teacher and older brother of
Tommy Dorsey who also became a prominent musician. He played
trumpet in his youth, appearing on stage in a
Vaudeville act as early as 1913. He switched to
alto saxophone in 1915, and then learned to double on
clarinet.
With his brother Tommy playing trombone, he formed Dorsey’s Novelty Six, one of the first jazz bands to broadcast. In 1924 he joined the
California Ramblers (who were based in
New York City). He did much free lance radio and
recording work throughout the 1920s. The brothers also appeared as session musicians on many jazz recordings. He joined
Ted Lewis's band in 1930, with whom he toured
Europe.
After returning to the
USA he worked briefly with
Rudy Vallee and several other bandleaders, in addition to the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra with Tommy. Tommy broke off to form his own band in 1935 after a musical dispute with Jimmy. The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra became the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, and included musicians such as
Bobby Byrne, Ray McKinley, and
Skeets Herfurt along with vocalists
Bob Eberly and
Kay Weber.
In
1939 Jimmy hired
Helen O'Connell as his female singer. She and Eberly possessed a "boy and girl next door" charm and their pairing produced several of the band's biggest hits. Many of the Eberly-O'Connell recordings were arranged in an unusual 3-section "a-b-c" format. The three-part format was reportedly developed at the insistence of a
record producer who wanted to feature both singers and the full band in a single 3-minute
78 rpm recording. Eberly sang the first minute, usually as a slow romantic ballad, the next minute featured the full band backing Jimmy's
saxophone, and the last minute was sung by O'Connell in a more up-tempo style, sometimes with lyrics in Spanish.
Jimmy continued leading his own band until the early 1950s. In 1953 he joined Tommy's Orchestra, renamed "The Fabulous Dorseys"; he took over leadership of the orchestra after Tommy's death. Jimmy survived his brother by only a few months and died of
lung cancer, aged 53, in New York City. Shortly before his death he was awarded a
gold record for "So Rare". However, contrary to popular belief, Jimmy did not do the alto sax solo on this recording; it was done instead by the great saxophonist Dick Stabile. That track also has the distinction of reaching to the number-two spot in
Billboard Magazine's popularity rankings, becoming the highest-rated song by a big band during the first decade of the
rock-and-roll era.
Jimmy Dorsey appeared in a number of
Hollywood motion pictures, including
That Girl From Paris,
Shall We Dance?,
The Fleet's In,
Lost in Harlem,
I Dood It, and the bio-pic with his brother Tommy,
The Fabulous Dorseys.
Dorsey is considered one of the most prominent alto saxophone players of the pre-
bebop era.
