Jack Jenney, one of the most respected trombone players in the field of jazz and swing in the 1930s and early 40s, spent part of his early boyhood in Dubuque, attended Dubuque Schools and performed his first professional job at the age of 13 with a Dubuque  jazz band.  In his adult career he performed with the Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman orchestras, as well as his own band. He appeared in the motion picture "Stage Door Canteen" and  was a popular studio musician on many network radio programs. 

He was considered an equal of Tommy Dorsey and is considered by jazz authorities as the first "contemporary" trombonist who left a lasting stylistic impact on all  players who followed him.  Jenney died at the age of 35 from complications with appendicitis.  His famous solo on "Stardust" by Artie Shaw is considered a classic moment in the history of big band swing and jazz. He is Dubuque's equivalent of "Bix". 

The Dubuque Symphony Orchestra  and  the  Dubuque Community School District Music Department are creating a new "jazz festival" to honor his memory. We will stage this family oriented  event at Eagle Point Park in the Bandshell on Saturday June 9, 2001. Music from a  variety of professional and school jazz bands will be performed from 1pm to 8p. 

The DSO has reserved the entire park, overlooking the Mississippi for the day.  All pavilions will be available for rental through the symphony. Music will be  performed in the band shell. 

Current talent lineup includes:  Swing Nouveau - a terrific 16 piece big band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Freida Lee (from Chicago) & 
The Dick Sturman Trio;  Kelly DeHaven and the MisBeHavin' Band from LaCrosse, WI ; The Senior High All Star Jazz Band; and Ken Kilian's Swing Band plus a  15 piece  string section.

Kilian's band will recreate the sound of The Jack Jenney Orchestra for the first time since 1940 with special transcriptions of his recordings
including "Swingin' The Apach'", "Cuban Boogie Woogie" and many more.

The Ken Kilian band  will also perform a recreation of the famed "Stardust" and "Moonglow" arrangement as a highlight of the days musical entertainment. 

A recently discovered home recording of "The Man With A Horn" performed by Jack Jenney and co-writer/wife/pianist/vocalist, Bonnie Lake will be played, followed by a new orchestra for swing band plus strings of this jazz standard. 

Jack's 71 year old son, John Jenney, Jr. will be in attendance at this event. It is through his kindness and cooperation that rare magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and photos will be seen for the first time. 

The evening will close at sunset with a performance by The Colts Drum Corps (one of the top DCI Corps in the nation) performing "Stardust".
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"Jack Jenney has a new organization that sounds like a million, plays like a
million and will probably make a million. This band has everything!"
(Downbeat Magazine - July 1939)

That review in a major music magazine during the height of the swing era should have satisfied the bandleader and everyone associated with him. However, less than 12 months later Jenney's orchestra had disbanded, he was bankrupt and Artie Shaw gained a superb trombonist. 

To most people who know the name Jack Jenney, his entire career could be
condensed into a beautiful 8 measure solo on "Stardust" which he recorded with the Artie Shaw Orchestra. 

"For me the most memorable moment of the performance has always been Jack Jenney's magnificent trombone solo, considered in its day a major breakthrough statement, both in technical and expressive terms. The extraordinary octave leap to high F was admired far and wide by musicians and sophisticated audiences , not only for the ease with which Jenney managed the deed, but for his elegance and sensitivity of phrasing. It must be remembered that few trombonists had ventured into that uppermost range of the instrument. Tommy Dorsey went above his favorite high note - Db - only once in his recording career. Jenney's rich full bodied "dare-devil" octave leap added to   the emotional appeal of the
passage." (Gunther Schuller in "The Swing Era" - pub. 1989)

Truman Elliot Jenney was born May 12, 1910 in Mason City, Iowa. His mother
was a concert pianist and his father a military bandmaster. The family moved to Dubuque and his father, John Jenney,  was a music instructor  at Columbia
College (now Loras College) in 1913-14. At about the same time the elder
Jenney founded a professional national touring band known as  "The Grandioso Band".  The young Jenney attended Prescott and  Franklin School and then Senior High School  in Dubuque.  He started studying trumpet with his father at the age of 8, then switched to trombone and began performing with his father's "Grandioso Band". Jenney also performed with "Art Braun and his  Novelty Boys", a Dubuque jazz band in 1922. The legendary "Bix" Biederbecke had auditioned for this band --- but didn't make it because he couldn't read music.

The family moved to Cedar Rapids and Jack attended school at Washington
High until he won a music scholarship to Culver Military Academy in Indiana
where he graduated. He quickly landed good jobs with various traveling bands including "Austin Wylie" and "Matt Hallett" and by 1932 had moved to New York City and entered the  "big time" with the famed Isham Jones Orchestra. Jack's smooth trombone work was featured on many of that orchestras recordings of the early 1930's including "Blue Prelude" which was a best seller. During this same time Jenney worked with numerous radio orchestras directed by Victor Young, Freddie Rich, Lennie Hayton, Rubinoff, Andre Kostelanetz and other popular conductors. At one time he was juggling a schedule which included 10-20 major radio programs each week, plus recording and touring. 

In 1932 Bing Crosby hired Jack to perform in a small band for a famous 
Chicago recording session which produced the Crosby best seller of 
"Sweet Georgia Brown" which featured a "hot" Jack Jenney  trombone chorus. 

Jack quickly gained the attention of jazz fans with six sides recorded with Red
Norvo's  Jazz Septet - a hot swing band which included up and coming
musicians such as Artie Shaw, Georgie Auld, Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa.
Jack also recorded some hot solos on recording sessions lead by Rafael
Mendez, Johnny Williams  and other noted jazzmen of the 1930's. 

And in 1935 when the Dorsey Brothers band broke up in their famed sibling
feud, it was Jack Jenney who replaced Tommy, for some time, on the orchestra which had suddenly become "The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra." 

Jack married Kay Thompson, a popular vocalist and vocal "coach" and
conducted several recording sessions for her for Victor in 1937. Swing authority Peter Tanner wrote in "Melody Maker" magazine that during this time  "Jenney was so busy that he not only had a private secretary to remind him of his numerous radio gigs, but he would often send a "substitute" to rehearsals,arriving himself a few minutes before the band was due on air, to give a faultless performance. It is also recounted that Toscannini himself chose Jenney to play a difficult trombone passage in one of Schuman's symphonies. He proved his undoubted all-round musicianship and adaptability to any kind of music."

In 1939, at the urging of a band booker, he formed his own 16 piece band.
"The Jack Jenney Orchestra" personel included, among others, "Peanuts"
Hucko on sax and clarinet, as well as Hugo Winterhalter, who would later
become a highly respected arranger/conductor for RCA Victor and MGM studios.  Jenney's first recording date under his own name was for Vocalion in 1938.  That band included the legendary Gene Krupa on drums and "Toots"
Mondello on sax and Jenney's brother, Bob, on second trombone.

Jenney's first session included a hot arrangement of Offenbach's Apache dance arranged by Jack Bigelow. "Swingin' the Apach'" included the drumming of Gene Krupa.

Jenney recorded 18 sides with his own orchestra between '38 and '40. His own version of "Stardust" is considered one of the finest jazz trombone recordings of all time. From the start, it is pure improvisation, with little hint of the actual melody line created by Hoagey Charmichael.

Singer Louise Tobin, soon to join  the Benny Goodman Orchestra  sang 
"Got No Time" on another Jenney session. Little did she know that the man playing the tenor sax solo on that side, Michael "Peanuts" Hucko, would become her husband some 20 years later.

One of the most popular Jenney recordings was "Cuban Boogie Woogie" written by his new wife, the multi-talented Bonnie Lake. 

The band received good reviews, particularily the "extraordinary tone and
floating phrases" of Jenney's Martin trombone - which he endorsed in music
press advertisements of the era. 

Although Jack's band was interesting and very musical, none of his recordings were best sellers. And Jack's reluctance to take the band on long road trips lead to it's demise. He returned to radio studio, Broadway and recording work, where  he continued to thrive...earning upwards of $1,000 a week.

Jack soon accepted an offer from the Artie Shaw Orchestra where he recreated a portion of his beautiful, creative, ground-breaking solo of "Stardust" on Shaw's recording. 

The Metronome Magazine All Star Band was a "hot" recording group
comprised of the best names in jazz as selected by readers of that prestigious music magazine. Jack Jenney recorded with the 1940 incarnation of that group with Benny Goodman, Harry James, Gene Krupa, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins and a virtual "who's who" of the most respected names in jazz of that year. 

In 1942 he was featured in the jam session segment of the movie"Syncopation" 
and in 1943 appeared with the Benny Goodman band in the hit film 'Stage Door Canteen". 

Jack was drafted in 1943 and served in the Navy for a short time until
discharged for health reasons. He had developed kidney problems. But,
continued to perform on the west coast until an emergency appendectomy with complications, lead to his death on December 16, 1945.

Before he died, Jack and his second wife, singer Bonnie Lake, wrote the
beautiful melody which would become a popular big band favorite and theme
song for the Ray Anthony Orchestra - "The Man with a Horn". 

In his book "The Big Bands", noted jazz critic and author, 
George Simon wrote: 

"Jack Jenney was an extraordinary trombonist. His style of playing was beautiful and imaginative; he blew his instrument with great feeling, producing what for me is the warmest, most personal sound I've ever heard from any horn. He created lovely, melodic variations on themes, like his gorgeous chorus on Artie Shaw's hit record "Stardust". His loss was not only a great one to music, but a deep, personal one to those who had known and admired this warm, too easy-going,
talented gent."

Record producer and jazz authority Campbell Burnap wrote in 1995: 

"Jack Jenney influenced many 1930's and 40's trombonists. Not only did he
posses that stunning tone and effortless range, but he was also an imaginative and terminally romantic storyteller (with his instrument). The great Bill Harris (another fabulous trombone player) believed Jack Jenney to be "the greatest."

In a 1987 radio interview the late Gil Evans, one of the most gifted
arrangers and composers of modern jazz stated: 

"I've noticed that Miles Davis must have heard Jack Jenney's recording of
"Stardust" as a youngster. As a matter of fact, a few years ago I heard Count
Basie at Birdland. Someone had arranged Jenney's solo for the saxaphones.
They played a harmonized version for five saxes. It was beautiful."

Gunther Schuller widen's Jenney's range of influence -  (Jack Jenney) "was
one of the great transitional figures, looking ahead to the great trombonists of a later day...Urbie Green, Bill Watrous, etc."

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