[Trombone-l] Fwd: [Kentonia] Don Lusher obit from Steve Voce

[George Carr]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: edbride at aol.com <edbride at aol.com>
Date: Jul 7, 2006 7:41 AM
Subject: [Kentonia] Don Lusher obit from Steve Voce

Folks,

Here is Steve Voce's obit of Don Lusher, which appeared in The  Independent
yesterday, and which is posted here with his permission.

This is one of two reflections from that side of the bond. The  other piece,
coming shortly, is that of Sheila Tracy, whom many of us met  at Back to
Balboa in 1991.

I was fortunate to meet and interview Don at the IAJE conference in NYC a
few years back, on the subject of the Kenton-Heath exchange concerts some 50
years ago. During the panel that commemorated the exchanges, and in the
interview, it was easy to see that he was a fine person, clever,
talented, and  one
who will be missed.

Ed




Don Lusher
Virtuoso jazz trombonist
Published: 07 July 2006





Gordon Douglas Lusher, trombonist and bandleader:  born Peterborough,
Northamptonshire 6 November 1923; OBE 2003; married 1948  Eileen
Orchard (died 1982;
two sons; marriage dissolved), 1981 Diana Bramwell;  died Cheam, Surrey 5 July
2006.
Whether it was in jazz, brass-band music or simply  trombone technique, there
never was another British trombonist who came within  miles of Don Lusher. He
amazed his listeners and, if he hadn't taken so much  time out to help and
teach, would have broken the hearts of anyone else who took  up the instrument.
He was matchless and ranked with his favourites Tommy Dorsey  and Dick Nash
amongst the best trombone players in the world.
He came to fame as the main soloist and lead trombone  in the Ted Heath band
and never forgot Heath's advice to him:
Always play like it's a broadcast. Never ease up.  When you're on a one-night
stand or anything, don't just take it easy. Always  play to the red light.
Lusher distilled the advice into a rule of his  own:
Just play good all the time, so that you don't really  know another way of
playing.
Ted Heath's band was the only British band to become  popular in the United
States. Lusher joined it in 1953 and stayed for nine  years. The Heath
tradition lived on and the ex-members of the band, including  the fine
singer Lita
Roza, alto saxophonist Roy Willox and trumpeter Ronnie  Hughes, kept in close
touch and worked together from the time of Heath's death  in 1969 until the
present. Lusher took over the band and it eventually  metamorphosed into the Don
Lusher Big Band with which he worked constantly until  earlier this year.
When Frank Sinatra worked in Europe he invariably had  Lusher as his lead
trombone player and Lusher's international fame was fortified  by the Heath
band's five tours of the US. On one of them, when the Heath band  was
backing Nat
King Cole in Alabama, he looked on as two members of the Klu  Klux Klan ran on
stage from the audience and attacked the singer, injuring his  face.
Lusher was a cornerstone of the Heath band and had  many features both in
ballads and faster numbers. One of the most exciting and  best known was on his
own composition "Lush Slide", a combination of  breathtaking trombone dexterity
in a blazing orchestration.
Starting to learn the trombone when he was six,  Lusher followed the family
tradition and joined the Peterborough Salvation Army  Band, playing alongside
his father and grandfather. He remained a figure in the  brass-band field for
the rest of his life, but as a boy was dazzled by the music  of the dance band
led by Geraldo. "I was completely overawed by the sound and by  the sheer
professionalism of everybody connected with it," he said.
During the Second World War Lusher served in the  Royal Artillery, where he
played in a divisional concert party called the Polar  Stars. He took part in
the D-Day landings. After the war, his skills gained him  easy entry into many
top bands. He joined Joe Daniels in 1947 and between then  and joining Heath
in 1953 he worked for Lou Preager, Maurice Winnick, the  Squadronaires, Jack
Parnell, Eric Delaney, Woolf Phillips and Eric Delaney. He  also led his own
bands and played in Jack Parnell's ATV orchestra. He won all  the polls in The
Melody Maker and The New Musical Express as the best  trombonist. Working in the
Lou Preager Band when he joined it was the singer  Eileen Orchard, who later
became his wife.
The Don Lusher Big Band began in 1974 and toured  internationally with
various musical directors including Robert Farnon, Nelson  Riddle and
Henry Mancini.
Riddle returned to work with him in 1979 for an  hour-long BBC TV programme,
Don Lusher's World of Music, wherein Lusher also  played with the Black Dyke
Mills Band. Lusher worked often on BBC Radio 2 as a  presenter.
In 1978 he gave the first performance of Gordon  Langford's Rhapsody for
Trombone at the Albert Hall and returned there in 1980  to do the same
for Gareth
Wood's Dance Sequence. The same year he played Gordon  Carr's Concerto for
Trombone at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and, in 1990, was the  soloist in Scott
Stroman's Concertina for Strings and Percussion at Lichfield  Cathedral. He
travelled to the US and to Australia to give master-classes on the
trombone and was
made Professor of Trombone at the Royal Marines  School.
Lusher won innumerable awards; he was twice elected  President of the British
Trombone Society, and for more than 30 years his Don  Lusher Trombone Prize
was awarded in BBC Radio 2's National Big Band  competition. He published The
Don Lusher Book (1985), a combined autobiography  and study book, and Don
Lusher's Trombone Album (1986), a collection of music he  had selected
and written
for trombone and piano.
The Ted Heath Tribute Orchestra continued under his  leadership throughout
the Eighties and Nineties, playing its final concert in  December 2000.
In later years he featured regularly in a Dixieland  group called "The Best
of British Jazz" and in 2001 recorded British Jazz  Musicians, an album where
he played in small groups with Humphrey Lyttelton,  John Chilton, John
Dankworth, Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball. George Melly  sang.