Buddy Childers

Buddy Childers
File:Buddy Childers, Stan Kenton 1947 or 1948 (Gottlieb 10248).jpg Childers (left) and Stan Kenton, ca. 1947.
Background information
Birth name	Marion Childers
Born	(1926-02-12)February 12, 1926 Belleville, Illinois, United States
Died	Woodland Hills, California, United States
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instruments	Trumpet
Labels	Candid Records
Associated acts	Stan Kenton Tommy Dorsey Woody Herman

Marion "Buddy" Childers (February 12, 1926 – May 24, 2007) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and ensemble leader. Childers became famous in 1942 at the age of 16, when Stan Kenton hired him to be the lead trumpet in his band.

Biography

As Childers later told Steve Voce:

"At the rehearsal he sat me down in the first trumpet chair, had the first trumpet player sit out. I played about eight or nine things in a row and the adrenalin was really flying that day. I was 16 I probably looked about 13, but I played considerably more maturely than that. 'Well, what do you want to do?' he said after that was over. 'I want to join your band.' 'But you're so young.' 'I gotta join your band,' I said. I had this thing in my mind that I had to join a name band at 16 or I'd never be able to make it as a musician. I was thinking of Harry James so young with Ben Pollack and then with Benny Goodman, and Corky Corcoran who joined Sonny Dunham when he was 16 and then became Harry James's leading soloist the next year. So I made it by three weeks. I only had a couple of months before I graduated but I wasn't interested in that, I was only interested in playing."

Childers worked with Kenton for years, and also performed with Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Les Brown, Charlie Barnet, Dan Terry, and others. He worked on television programs and in films, and put together a big band that recorded for Candid Records in the 1980s and 1990s.

Childers became a member of the Bahá'í Faith by 1982. He died of cancer on May 24, 2007, age 81.

Discography

With Gene Ammons

• Free Again (Prestige, 1971)

With Elmer Bernstein

• The Man with the Golden Arm (Decca, 1956)

With Maynard Ferguson

• Around the Horn with Maynard Ferguson (EmArcy, 1956)

With Clare Fischer

• Thesaurus (Atlantic, 1969)

With Milt Jackson

• Memphis Jackson (Impulse!, 1969)

With Carmen McRae

• Can't Hide Love (Blue Note, 1976)

With Lalo Schifrin

• Rock Requiem (Verve, 1971)