[Trombone-l] Don Lusher obit

[George Carr]

This came through on the Stan Kenton list, and thought it might be of
interest here...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: edbride at aol.com <edbride at aol.com>
Date: Jul 10, 2006 11:04 AM

>From British journalist Shelia Tracy comes this obit on Don Lusher; I
believe this was written for the British Trombone Society, and she generously
shares it with Kentonians and FBBJ members.

Interesting bit of trivia which I don't think I'd seen elsewhere: when
Sinatra toured the U.K., Don took "the Milt Berhnart solo" on "I've
Got You  Under
My Skin." Maybe that fact alone is sufficient to omit the "OT"  designation.

Thanks, Sheila, for a fine reflection,
Ed



In a career lasting almost 60  years, Don Lusher was one of the very few
British trombonists whose name came to  be recognised around the world.  His
unexpected death on July 5th at the age of 82 came as a shock to
everyone in the
music business and he will be sadly missed.
Born into a Salvation Army family  in Peterborough in 1923, he was  learning
trombone at 6 and at 15  joined his father and grandfather in the senior band
where his mother was  the Songster Leader.  Being a  Salvationist, it never
entered his mind that he might earn a living from music  but all that was to
change with the outbreak of war in September 1939.
Called up at 18 and waiting to  join the D-Day landings, the troops were
treated to a concert by one of  Britain's top  dance bands, Geraldo and His
Orchestra in West Ham Football stadium. The  musicians in their
Crombie overcoats
seemed to Don to be the epitome of wealthy  sophistication and there and then he
vowed that he too would play in a band like  that one day.  Little did he
know at  the time that the lead trombone in Geraldo's band that evening was Ted
Heath  whose band he would eventually lead.
His request to be allowed to  audition for the band of the Royal Artillery
having been turned down, he had  little opportunity to play again until VE Day
when he volunteered to join a 12  piece band for a concert party, remaining in
the army for another six months,  during which time he learnt to read the bass
clef  and chords!
Following his de-mob Don answered  an advert in the Melody Maker and
successfully auditioned for Joe
Daniels and His Hotshots. From  then on it was a case of moving ever upwards,
one step at a time.  A stint with Lou Preager at Hammersmith  Palais
followed, where he met and married the band's vocalist, Eileen
Orchard.  He played in
the Squadronaires alongside George Chisholm and Tommy  McQuater,  joined
Geraldo on  4th trombone in 1951 and the following year was poached by the band
that was to make his name, Ted Heath.
Overseas tours to  Australia and  New Zealand in  1955, preceded Ted Heath's
first  visit to the States in 1956 with their much acclaimed appearance at
Carnegie  Hall. The atmosphere that night was electric, everyone nervous,
including the  leader who half off the microphone hurriedly announces "It's Don
Lusher and his  trombone to play the Carioca", beating it in faster than ever
before!  The tremendous applause from a capacity  audience, including many of
America's top  jazz musicians and bandleaders, said it all.
That coast to coast tour in '56  was the first of five such tours, the kind
of happening that young musicians  today can only dream about.  As  indeed was
the  UK session scene  at that time with players of the calibre of Don Lusher
spending their life in  the studios, morning, noon and  night.  No sooner had
one session  ended, it was into the car and on to the next one and life was
full of surprises  as Don discovered one evening,  when  having been recording
all day, he arrived at London's EMI studios to discover  the singer was Ella
Fitzgerald.
Over a period of 20 years Don was  a member of the orchestra that accompanied
Frank Sinatra on all his European  tours and had vivid memories of the very
first concert when he stood up to take  the famous solo on "I've Got You Under
My Skin".  He once described that moment as forever  etched on his memory, "
I glanced at Sinatra and those blue eyes were going right  through me and out
the back of my head and it put the fear of God into me!"
After leaving Ted Heath in 1961,  Don Lusher joined Jack Parnell at Elstree,
playing for all the big television  specials including the Muppet show.  Being
first call in the studios, he has been heard on the sound tracks of  all the
James Bond and Pink Panther films and worked with Henry Mancini on both  sides
of the Atlantic.  During one of his visits to  America while  staying with
Dick Nash in Los  Angeles, he was asked to dep, or sub, as they say over  there,
in the orchestra conducted by Mancini at the  Hollywood studios which he
always said was a huge  thrill.
The big band and session scenes  were only a part of what was a truly
remarkable career for a musician who had no  formal training as such.
In 1975 he
gave the first performance of Gordon Langford's "Rhapsody for Trombone" at
London's Royal Albert Hall, and has  performed it on numerous occasions all over
the world.  Other premiered works included Gareth  Woods' "Dance Sequence"
and Gordon Carr's "Concerto for Trombone".
In 1979 BBC Television  presented him with the ultimate musical  accolade, an
hour long show entitled "The Musical World of Don Lusher" with the  Don
Lusher Big Band, top brass band Black Dyke, and special guest Nelson
Riddle,  who
described Don as 'a consummate craftsman and one of England's national
treasures'.
Having already formed his own big  band in the '70s, he was asked by Ted Heath
's widow Moira, to take over the  leadership of  the Heath Band, which  he
did for 25 years until the final concert at the Royal Festival Hall in  December
2000.  His own line-up, the  Don Lusher Big Band, gave it's final performance
at  Leicester's De Montfort Hall in December 2005.
He was a founder member, along  with Kenny Baker, of the Best of British
Jazz, a group with whom he was playing  up until the time of his death and in
recent months had been playing with the  Great British Jazz Band.  He
was  booked
as the featured soloist to appear with John Dankworth's band at  Wavendon  on
July 1st, a date he  regretfully had to cancel on going into hospital for an
operation, not expected  to be life threatening, but from which he was unable
to recover.
Don Lusher left a legacy to  inspire all trombone players, not for nothing
was he referred to as 'The  gentleman of jazz'  although he was  never a jazz
player as such, ballads being his forte.  Many young students of the trombone
in  the '50s and '60s will tell you they were inspired by the instantly
recogisable  Lusher sound.  Jack Parnell once described him as
"probably the most
immaculate player I have ever come across".  I recall being in the audience at
 London's Barbican Theatre for a concert by the Don Lusher Big Band when he
tripped coming on stage resulting in an almost imperceptible split on his
first  note.  "Something must have  happened" whispered the trombonist sitting
next to me "Don Lusher never splits  notes".
Topping many a Melody Maker poll  in the '50s, his list of awards included
BBC Jazz Society Musicians of the Year,  British Academy of Songwriters,
Composers and Authors Gold Badge of Merit, the  Freedom of the City of
London, the
Alan Dell Award and the Worshipful Company of  Musicians Jazz Silver Medal.
In 2003 he was awarded the O.B.E  and the following year was presented with
an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the  University of  Portsmouth.
He  was to have been presented with the ITA 2006 Award at the Interntaional
Trombone  Festival in Birmingham  on July 22nd.
[Sheila Tracy]


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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