Boyd Raeburn

Boyd Albert Raeburn (October 27, 1913 – August 2, 1966)[1] was an American jazz bandleader and bass saxophonist.

Boyd Raeburn
Boyd Raeburn, c. June 1946Photograph by William P. Gottlieb
Boyd Raeburn, c. June 1946
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb
Background information
Birth nameBoyd Albert Raeburn
Born(1913-10-27)October 27, 1913
Faith, South Dakota, U.S.
Died2 August 1966(1966-08-02) (aged 52)
Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S.
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)Saxophone

Career

He was born in Faith, South Dakota, United States.[1] Raeburn attended the University of Chicago, where he led a campus band.[1] He gained his earliest experience as a commercial bandleader at Chicago's World Fair (1933–1934).[2] For the rest of the decade, he worked in dance bands, sometimes leading them.[3]

In the next decade, the group passed through swing before becoming identified with the bop school.[2] His later big band, which was active c. 1944-1947, performed arrangements that were often comparable to those used by Woody Herman and the "progressive jazz" of Stan Kenton during the same period.[3] The compositions arranged by George Handy were the most contemporary, utilizing dissonance somewhat in the manner of Igor Stravinsky. Johnny Richards joined in 1947, following Handy and stayed for a year writing 50 compositions.[3]

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,[2] had two children.[4] As well as singing with her husband's group, Powell also sang with Harry James and Gene Krupa.[4] Raeburn left music in the mid-1950s.[3] Powell died in Nassau in the Bahamas in 1959 from meningitis; the couple had moved there.[4] He settled in New Orleans and ran a furniture store.[5]

Raeburn died from a heart attack in 1966 in Lafayette, Louisiana, aged 52.[1] 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[4] 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.[4]

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
  1. Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 2031. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
  2. "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.
  3. Stokes, W. Royal (April 22, 1979). "Swinging Back to a '40s Sound". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  4. Shaw, Lew (January 1, 2018). "Bruce Boyd Raeburn Retires From Hogan Jazz Archive". Syncopatedtimes.com. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
  5. Jordan, Steve; Scanlan, Tom (1993) [1991]. "Rhythm Man: Fifty Years in Jazz". Ann Arbor: University of Micghigan Press. p. 58. ISBN 0472082027.

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