Acrobat Music

Bunny Berigan, American jazz trumpeter of the swing era, was born on 2nd Nov. 1908

Bunny Berigan, American jazz trumpeter of the swing era, was born on 2nd Nov. 1908
Born Rowland Bernard Berigan in Wisconsin on November 2nd 1908, Bunny was a child musical prodigy, learning violin and trumpet, as playing in local orchestras during his teens. He joined the popular Hal Kemp Orchestra in about 1928, touring Europe with him during 1930. During the early '30s he largely freelanced, although he spent a year with Paul Whiteman in 1932-3. During 1934-5 he played with the Dorsey Brothers and Glenn Miller before making his most important move in joining Benny Goodman, which persuaded Gene Krupa, an admirer of Berigan's to join as well. It was with this line-up that Goodman did the tour, ending In Los Angeles, which has been hailed as the birth of the swing era. He worked again with Tommy Dorsey, including playing the solo on the hit "Marie" before starting his own band in 1937. The band was excellent, appearing on CBS Radio's national Saturday Swing Club for 3 years, with a variety of emerging big names passing through its ranks, such as Buddy Rich, Joe Bushkin, Ray Conniff, Jack Sperling and many others, but it was never in the same commercial league as the big names, and the stress of being a businessman as well as bandleader drove Berigan to retreat into alcohol. The business problems forced him into bankruptcy in 1940, and he rejoined Tommy Dorsey before starting a new small band. The punishing touring schedule combined with his continued drinking was too much for Berigan, and he developed cirrhosis of the liver, and died on June 2nd 1942 in New York at the age of just 33. Acrobat has an album of his recordings on catalogue - for details click here.
©2008 Acrobat Music