Urbie Green

Urban Clifford "Urbie" Green (August 8, 1926 – December 31, 2018) was an American jazz trombonist who toured with Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Jan Savitt, and Frankie Carle.[1]

Urbie Green
Urbie Green at the Village Jazz Lounge in Walt Disney World (photo by Laura Kolb)
Background information
Birth nameUrban Clifford Green
Also known asUrbie Green
Born(1926-08-08)August 8, 1926
Mobile, Alabama, United States
DiedDecember 31, 2018(2018-12-31) (aged 92)
Hellertown, Pennsylvania, United States
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Musician
InstrumentsTrombone
LabelsVanguard, Bethlehem, Paramount, Command, Project 3
Associated actsWoody Herman, Gene Krupa, Jan Savitt, Frankie Carle, many others

He played on over 250 recordings and released more than two dozen albums as a soloist, and was highly respected by his fellow trombonists. Green's trombone sound was especially noted for its warm, mellow tone, even in the higher registers where he was more fluent than most trombonists. His technique was considered flawless by many in the music industry and he played in major jazz festivals, motion picture soundtracks, concert halls, nightclubs, radio, television and the White House. He was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1995.

Early years and influences

Born in Mobile, Alabama, Green was taught the piano as a child by his mother, jazz and popular tunes from the beginning. He picked up the trombone, which both older brothers played, when he was about 12. Although he listened to such trombone greats as Tommy Dorsey, J. C. Higginbotham, Jack Jenney, Jack Teagarden and Trummy Young he has said that he was more influenced by the styles of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Lester Young. Urbie's trombone style was also influenced by vocalists such as Perry Como, and the vocal style of Louis Armstrong.

Green's father died when he was 15 and Urbie went straight into professional music, first joining the Tommy Reynolds Band in California before moving on to stints with Bob Strong, Jan Savitt, and Frankie Carle. Green also played with The Auburn Knights Orchestra, a college big band based in Auburn, Alabama while attending Auburn High School.[2]

Professional career

In 1947, Green joined Gene Krupa's band and quickly moved up to Woody Herman's third "Thundering Herd" big band in 1950 to play with his brother, Jack. His soaring ballad style was featured on such solos as Hoagy Carmichael's Skylark, and provided a contrast to Herman's previous First Herd rough-and-ready trombone star, Bill Harris. In 1953 he moved to New York City, quickly establishing himself as the premier trombonist in the booming recording industry and in 1954 he was voted the "New Star" trombonist in the International Critics Poll from Down Beat magazine. His style was not as blues-influenced as others, in that he was among the few players who commanded the high tessitura favored by Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Jack Jenney with an agility that was not shown by these previous trombonists in their recordings. Some of his solos provided the highlights on one-hit wonder albums from Verve Records, such as that of organist Walter Wanderly, as well as established artists like Herbie Mann.

He recorded with virtually all of the major jazz musicians of the 1950s and 1960s and led his own groups while also joining tours as a featured performer, including a three-month tour leading the Benny Goodman Orchestra and fronting the Tommy Dorsey orchestra after Dorsey's death in 1956.

He collaborated with innovative producer Enoch Light for the Command and Project 3 labels, producing what are probably his most notable recordings, such as the two-volume sets The Persuasive Trombone of Urbie Green and 21 Trombones. He was sideman and soloist on the album project 's Continental by Ray Conniff and his orchestra and chorus (1961).

The 1980s and beyond saw a slowing down of Urbie Green's recording career. Both albums recorded by him during this period are live, straight jazz works; Just Friends, and Sea Jam Blues.

Personal life

Green spent his later life with his second wife Kathy, a jazz singer, at their home in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania. The couple had two children, Jesse and Casey. Jesse is a jazz pianist and lives nearby, while Casey is a TV / Film Director / Producer in Los Angeles, California. Urbie's first wife was Darlein Dietz and they had two children, Urban Clifford Green Jr. and James Preston Green. Urban has a daughter, Gretchen Alexandra Pöelker-Green, who lives in Sea Cliff, New York. James lives in Tallahassee, Florida, and has a son named Vincent.

In 1995 Green was elected into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. He continued playing live at the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts (COTA) Festival every September into the last years of his life, just miles down the road from his home.

Green's obituary was published in the Pocono Record.[3]

Discography

As leader
  • 1953 New Faces, New Sounds (Blue Note)
  • 1954 Urbie Green Septet (Blue Note)
  • 1954 Urbie Green and His Band (Vanguard)
  • 1954 A Cool Yuletide (X)
  • 1955 Blues and Other Shades of Green (ABC-Paramount)
  • 1955 The Melodic Tones of Urbie Green (Bethlehem)
  • 1955 East Coast Jazz, Volume 6 (Bethlehem)
  • 1955 The Lyrical Language of Urbie Green (Bethlehem)
  • 1955 The Melodic Tones of Urbie Green (Vanguard)
  • 1955 Blues and Other Shades of Green (Paramount)
  • 1956 All About Urbie Green and His Big Band (ABC-Paramount)
  • 1957 Urbie Green Octet / Slidin' Swing (Jazztone)
  • 1957 Let's Face the Music and Dance (RCA)
  • 1958 Best of New Broadway Show Hits (RCA)
  • 1960 The Persuasive Trombone of Urbie Green (Command)
  • 1961 The Persuasive Trombone of Urbie Green Volume 2 (Command)
  • 1963 Urbie Green and His 6-Tet. (Command)
  • 1967 21 Trombones (Project 3)
  • 1971 Green Power (Project 3)
  • 1972 Bein' Green (Project 3)
  • 1973 Old Time Modern (RCA) (recorded in 1954)
  • 1973 21 Trombones Volume 2 (Project 3)
  • 1974 Urbie Green's Big Beautiful Band (Project 3)
  • 1976 The Fox (CTI)
  • 1977 Señor Blues (CTI)
  • 1978 Live at Rick's Cafe American (Flying Fish)
  • 1981 Just Friends (EJ)
  • 1995 Sea Jam Blues (Chiaroscuro)

As sideman

With Manny Albam

With Steve Allen

  • Jazz for Tonight (Coral, 1955)

With Trigger Alpert

With The Count Basie Orchestra

With Ruth Brown

With Ray Bryant

With Kenny Burrell

  • Blues - The Common Ground (Verve, 1968)
  • Night Song (Verve, 1969)

With Ron Carter

With Buck Clayton

With Al Cohn

With Ray Conniff

  • 's Continental (Columbia, 1961)

With Paul Desmond

With Bill Evans

With Gil Evans

With Art Farmer

With Maynard Ferguson

With Aretha Franklin

With Dizzy Gillespie

With Johnny Griffin

With Coleman Hawkins

With Billie Holiday

With Bobby Hutcherson

With Milt Jackson

With Antonio Carlos Jobim

With J. J. Johnson

With Quincy Jones

With Irene Kral

With Mundell Lowe

With Herbie Mann

With Carmen McRae

With Gil Mellé

With Blue Mitchell

With Wes Montgomery

With Mark Murphy

  • Rah! (Riverside, 1961)

With Oliver Nelson

With Joe Newman

With Chico O'Farrill

With Glenn Osser

  • In My Merry Oldsmobile (DaJon, 1964)

With Henri Rene

  • Compulsion to Swing (RCA Victor, 1959)

With Lalo Schifrin

  • New Fantasy (Verve, 1964)
  • The Dissection and Reconstruction of Music From the Past as Performed By the Inmates of Lalo Schifrin's Demented Ensemble as a Tribute to the Memory of the Marquis De Sade (Verve, 1966)
  • Towering Toccata (CTI, 1976)

With Shirley Scott

  • Great Scott!! (Impulse!, 1964)

With Frank Sinatra

With Jimmy Smith

With Sonny Stitt

With Stanley Turrentine

With Walter Wanderley

With Dinah Washington

With Joe Wilder

With Kai Winding

With Steve Lawrence

  • Swingin' West

With Benny Goodman

  • From Broadway to Paris(ABC, 1973)

References
  1. Allmusic
  2. "Former Knight Urbie Green", Auburn Knights Alumni Association Newsletter, September 15, 1996, 6; The School Musician and Teacher, November 1970, 56.
  3. "Urban Clifford "Urbie" Green". Pocono Record. January 5, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
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