[Dixielandjazz] Buddy Morrow RIP

[BillSargentDrums at aol.com]

I enjoying playing on his band, and later seeing him lead the TD  band.
 
I am going to miss him.
 
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Buddy Morrow: Trombonist and bandleader who shot to fame with the Fifties  
hit 'Night Train'

Thursday, 30 September 2010 - _http://www.independent.co.uk_ 
(http://www.independent.co.uk) 

What do you call a beautiful girl on the arm of a trombone player? A  
tattoo.

The trombone and trombonists have been largely out of favour with  American 
audiences for many years – since the days of Glenn Miller and Tommy  
Dorsey, in fact. But Buddy Morrow came after them, and he made the last great  
trombone hit record. It was "Night Train", done on 12 April 1952, and it swept  
across the world. I heard it daily for weeks over the tannoy in my National 
 Service barrack hut. It was a brassy, raucous, blasting record, 
characterised by  great smears from Morrow's trombone and propelled by a bumpy, 
repetitive rhythm  theme which foreshadowed the impending rock'n'roll. Morrow 
became a star on the  back of it. Almost everybody loved it. 

But not Duke Ellington. The tune had a tawdry background. Ellington had  
played his own tune "Happy Go Lucky Local" in 1947 when the tenor saxophonist  
Jimmy Forrest was briefly in his band. "Night Train", allegedly composed by 
 Forrest, proved to be a note-for-note borrowing from the tenor part sheet 
music  of "Happy Go Lucky Local". In public Ellington was gracious about 
Morrow's  recording. "It must have been a good tune if someone wanted to steal 
it. We must  be flattered and just go on to write something better." But in 
private he was  enraged. 

"It hurts and it's offensive. You threaten to sue and then you postpone  
until it's too late and then you get realmad," Ellington confided to Stanley  
Dance. "But you do nothing but spoil your disposition." 

"Night Train" made Buddy Morrow's name and raised him to a different  level 
as an instrumentalist. But he had already had a thoroughly worthy career  
in top-line bands stretching back to when he joined Artie Shaw's band in 
1936.  Before that, when he was 17, he had moved to New York to study at the 
Juilliard  school of music. In 1937, he joined Bunny Berigan's band, leaving 
Bunny after a  year to play for Tommy Dorsey, where he earned $125 a week. By 
now used to good  wages, he became a member of Paul Whiteman's colossal 
orchestra in 1939.  Whiteman paid him $375 for three days work a week or fewer. 

For the last few years he'd been appearing under his real name, Moe  
Zudekoff, and also under his assumed name as Buddy Morrow. In 1940 he decided to  
stick to the latter and ditched Zudekoff. In the summer of 1941 he joined 
Bob  Crosby's band and stayed for a year, soloing on three of Crosby's 
records,  playing in the smooth style of Tommy Dorsey. 

He was called up for the US Navy in 1942 and when he was discharged in  
1945 he joined Jimmy Dorsey, leading the band for some time when Dorsey was 
ill.  Morrow next formed his own band, but it wasn't a success and he went to 
work as  a studio musician in 1946. He remained in quiet obscurity until 
1950, when RCA  Victor suddenly decided to promote him as a bandleader. He 
became almost the  only big bandleader except Ellington who was able to mount 
tours and concerts at  a time when nearly all the big bands had gone under. 
Some of his numbers from  the time are included in the film Buddy Morrow and 
his Orchestra (1952). His big  band was made up of obscure studio musicians, 
but they served him well and on  the back of the success of "Night Train" 
they had hits with "One Mint Julep" and  "Rose, Rose I Love You". 

Work for the band eventually slowed down and Morrow returned to the  
studios, playing as a sideman in the Tonight show and continuing to tour  
occasionally with his own band. He also led a quartet in Las Vegas but he broke  it 
up in 1973 and went to live in Florida. 

However, a new career was to open up for him. He had been noted for his  
ability to copy the trombone style of Tommy Dorsey and in 1976, 20 years after 
 Dorsey's death, Morrow played all Dorsey's solos again when he took over 
the  leadership of the Tommy Dorsey ghost band. Amazingly, he was latterly 
able to  lead the band from a wheelchair on stage. His last appearance with 
the band at  the age of 91, was last Friday. 

Steve Voce 

Muni "Moe" Zudekoff (Buddy Morrow), trombonist, bandleader: born New  
Haven, Connecticut 8 February 1919; died c. 27 September 2010.