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Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra
Biography
Jimmy Dorsey was both an accomplished reed player, specializing in alto saxophone and clarinet, and one of the top bandleaders of the swing era. In the early and late periods of his career, he co-led bands with his younger brother Tommy; in between, he scored a series of Latin-tinged hits that established his orchestra as one of the most successful recording and performing units of the early '40s. And despite some lean years in the late '40s and the first half of the '50s, he managed to score a major pop hit during the final weeks of his life.

The first son of Thomas Francis Dorsey, Sr., a music teacher and marching band director, and Theresa Langton Dorsey, Dorsey received early music instruction from his father; by the age of seven, he was playing cornet in his father's band. Switching to trumpet, he made his professional debut at nine when he appeared with J. Carson McGee's King Trumpeters in New York in September 1913. But two years later, he had switched to reed instruments, alternating on alto saxophone and clarinet. Less than two years younger, his brother Tommy had taken up horn instruments, sometimes playing trumpet but mainly trombone, and the brothers formed Dorsey's Novelty Six in 1920.
Selected Discography

Contrasts
1936