Dorsey brothers biography

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Jimmy Dorsey born James Francis Dorsey February 29, 1904, in Shenandoah, PA; died June 12, 1957, in New York City; Tommy Dorsey born Thomas Francis Dorsey November 19, 1905, in Shenandoah, PA; died November 26, 1956, in Greenwich, CT; sons of Thomas Francis (a coal miner, then music teacher and bandmaster) and Theresa (Langton) Dorsey; Jimmy Dorsey married Jane Porter; children: Julie Lou; Tommy Dorsey married Mildred Kraft (first wife), Pat Dane (second wife), Janie (third wife); children: (first marriage) Thomas Francis III, Patricia.

"Well-trained and well-disciplined, they knew what they wanted, and they knew how to get it. George T. Simon stated in his book The Big Bands that Jimmy Dorsey's temperament allowed him to be "dedicated to high musical standards but less blatantly devoted to ruling the roost." His easygoing manner helped create a "disciplined spirited ensemble and made it a resounding commercial success without exercising an authoritative hand.

Both brothers would become huge big band music stars. The brothers' work helped establish and define a specific period in American music and history. After Tommy died unexpectedly in 1956, Jimmy took over the band.

"Tommy's primary objective was to play music for dancing, and he and his men did exactly that with enormous skill." The orchestra was immediately given a recording contract and appeared on several radio shows in the first few years after its formation, establishing its sound with a highly receptive public. After starting out as cornetists, both Dorseys quickly switched to instruments for which they would later become known: Jimmy to alto saxophone and clarinet, Tommy to trombone.

At this time, Jimmy's musical technique was highly regarded. "His big trouble, one which earned him a number of impassioned enemies, was his lack of tolerance of others' mistakes and his lack of tact when they were made," Simon pointed out. Before his own death less than a year later, Jimmy recorded "So Rare," a song he had introduced 20 years earlier.

Unexpectedly, the record went to the top of the charts and became the biggest hit of his career. was such that singers everywhere began to dominate popular music, even more than before, until eventually most big bands became strictly accompanimental and secondary to the vocalists," Schuller pointed out.

The rise of vocal musicians and the demise of big bands was further prompted in 1942 by a thirteen-and-a-half-month recording ban issued by the American Federation of Musicians (AMF).

They were signed to Decca Records in 1934, and enjoyed a major hit with “I Believe in Miracles.”

Conflict between the brothers, which at times escalated to fistfights, resulted in Tommy dissolving the partnership and forming his own orchestra in 1935. Because of the sudden change in personnel that occurred at any moment, Schuller contended, "the sections in the [Tommy] Dorsey band and the orchestra as a whole never developed cohesive ensembles."

When everything did fall into place, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra exemplified the most favorable qualities of a quintessential big band of the Swing Era.

Utilizing members of the Joe Haymes Band, Tommy formed his orchestra in the fall of 1935. That facet of swing faded, however, when the American consciousness was permanently changed by World War II. Stereo Review' s Peter Reilly consequently dismissed the Dorsey brothers' music for modern listeners: "It doesn't have enough vitality or true style to bridge the years." But Schuller contended in 1989 the music should not be measured by the subjectivity of timelessness, for swing's important qualities are "impossible to recapture now, and, for those who did not actually experience it, difficult to savor in retrospect."

Born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, in 1904 and 1905, respectively, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey were both playing instruments by 1910 under the strict tutelage of their father, a music teacher and bandmaster, who, to be certain his sons practiced, hid their shoes so they couldn't play outdoors.

Both brothers' orchestras appeared in numerous films; the brothers also appeared in and were the subject of the semi-biographical film The Fabulous Dorseys, 1947.

Famous Works

• Singles; Dorsey Brothers Orchestra
• "My Melancholy Baby," Okeh, 1928.
• "Praying the Blues," Okeh, 1929.
• "Oodles of Noodles," Columbia, 1932.
• "Fidgety," Brunswick, 1933.
• "Shim Sham Shimmy," Brunswick, 1933.
• "Stop, Look, and Listen," Decca, 1934.
• "Sandman," Decca, 1934.
• "Tailspin," Decca, 1935.
• "Dippermouth Blues," Decca, 1935.
• Singles; Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra
• "Parade of the Milk Bottle Caps," Decca, 1936.
• "John Silver," Decca, 1938.
• "Dusk in Upper Sandusky," Decca, 1939.
• "My Prayer," Decca, 1939.
• "Contrasts," Decca, 1940.
• "Amapola," Decca, 1941.
• "Green Eyes," Decca, 1941.
• "Maria Elena," Decca, 1941.
• "Blue Champagne," Decca, 1941.
• "Embraceable You," Decca, 1941.
• "Tangerine," Decca, 1941.
• "Brazil," Decca, 1942.
• Singles; Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
• "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," Victor, 1935.
• "Marie," Victor, 1937.
• "Song of India," Victor, 1937.
• "Boogie Woogie," Victor, 1938, reissued, 1943.
• "Hawaiian War Chant," Victor, 1938.
• "Music, Maestro, Please," Victor, 1938.
• "I'll Be Seeing You," Victor, 1940.
• "I'll Never Smile Again," Victor, 1940.
• "Yes, Indeed!," Victor, 1941.
• "Well, Git It!," Victor, 1941.
• "On the Sunny Side of the Street," Victor, 1944.
• "Opus No.

  1," Victor, 1944.

• Reissues and compilations
• The Dorsey Brothers: 1934-1935 Decca Sessions MCA.
• Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra: 1939-1940 Circle.
• The Dorsey/Sinatra Sessions Bluebird, Vol. 1, 1940, Vol. 2, 1940-41, Vol. 3, 1941-42.
• Big Bands: Tommy Dorsey Time-Life Music, 1983.
• Big Bands: Jimmy Dorsey Time-Life Music, 1984.
• Best of Big Bands Columbia/Legacy, 1992.
• The Best of Jimmy Dorsey MCA.
• The Best of Tommy Dorsey MCA.
• Sentimental Dorsey Pair.

Further Reading

Books

• Schuller, Gunther, The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945, Oxford University Press, 1989.
• Simon, George T., The Big Bands, Macmillan, 1967, revised, 1974.

• New York Times, June 13, 1957.
• People, November 1, 1982.
• Saturday Review, January 17, 1970.
• Stereo Review, January 1983; March 1983; April 1984.

• Scott, Jeff, liner notes to Big Bands: Tommy Dorsey, Time-Life Music, 1983.
• Sudhalter, Richard M., liner notes to Big Bands: Jimmy Dorsey, Time-Life Music, 1984.

Dorsey Brothers, The Lyrics

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"Its popularity was a reminder of just how potent a musical force Jimmy Dorsey had been," Sudhalter concluded, "but the record sounded less like a hit than a requiem."

In the end the music the Dorseys created didn't change; the country that listened to it had changed.