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Boyd Raeburn | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Boyd Albert Raeburn |
Born | Faith, South Dakota, U.S. | October 27, 1913
Died | 2 August 1966 Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S. | (aged 52)
Genres | Jazz |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Saxophone |
Boyd Albert Raeburn (October 27, 1913 – August 2, 1966) [1] was an American jazz bandleader and bass saxophonist.
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.[ citation needed] Johnny Richards joined in 1947, following Handy and stayed for a year writing 50 compositions. [3]
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]
Media related to Boyd Raeburn at Wikimedia Commons