Tommy Dorsey, the smooth trombonist who taught Frank Sinatra to breathe
Frank Sinatra said he learned breath control by watching Tommy Dorsey play trombone. The bandleader nicknamed the Sentimental Gentleman of Swing was anything but gentle in business: he walked out on the band he shared with his brother, backed a rival band to spite Glenn Miller, and once hit an actor for hugging his wife.
Dorsey was born on November 19, 1905, in Mahanoy Plane, Pennsylvania, the son of a bandleader who first taught him trumpet before he switched to trombone. With his older brother Jimmy he worked through the 1920s dance-band circuit, from the Scranton Sirens to Jean Goldkette in Detroit and Paul Whiteman, and the Dorsey Brothers scored their first hit, Coquette, in 1929. Glenn Miller wrote arrangements for their orchestra in 1934 and 1935. Then, amid bitter rivalry, Tommy walked out in 1935 to form his own band.
It took off almost at once on RCA Victor, starting with On Treasure Island, and became famous for ballads played at dance tempos. Stung by complaints that his band lacked jazz feeling, Dorsey lured the arranger Sy Oliver away from Jimmie Lunceford in 1939; Oliver wrote the instrumentals Well, Git It and Opus One. In 1940 he took Sinatra from Harry James, and over the next two years the singer cut eighty sides with the band. I'll Never Smile Again topped the charts for 12 weeks in 1940. Buddy Rich, Bunny Berigan, Doc Severinsen and Nelson Riddle all passed through.
Dorsey's ventures were as combative as his music was smooth. He lent Miller money to start a band in 1938, then demanded a share of his income; when Miller refused, Dorsey sponsored Bob Chester's band and hired arrangers to imitate Miller's sound. After souring on the Hollywood Palladium he opened a competing ballroom, the Casino Gardens. His second marriage, to the actress Patricia Dane, made headlines when he struck Jon Hall for embracing her.
He broke up his orchestra at the end of 1946, but a top-ten album early the next year let him regroup, and the brothers eventually reconciled. When Jimmy dissolved his own band in 1953, Tommy took him in as a featured star, and they appeared on Jackie Gleason's CBS show. Dorsey died at his Greenwich, Connecticut, home on November 26, 1956, a week after turning 51. His band outlived him, led for decades afterwards by others.
Source: Tommy Dorsey
