James Dorsey

 James Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957)

Dorsey was a jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He was known as "JD". He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards "I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary People)" and "It's The Dreamer In Me". His other major recordings were "Tailspin", "John Silver", "So Many Times", "Amapola", "Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil)", "Pennies from Heaven" with Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and Frances Langford, "Grand Central Getaway", and "So Rare". He played clarinet on the seminal jazz standards "Singin' the Blues" in 1927 and the original 1930 recording of "Georgia on My Mind", both inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Jimmy Dorsey's first hit record was "You Let Me Down" in 1935. His early band was considered to be more jazz-oriented than his brother's, and recordings of some instrumental swing classics soon followed: Dorsey Stomp, Tap Dancer's Nightmare, Parade of the Milk Bottle Caps, John Silver, and Dusk in Upper Sandusky. In 1936, Bing Crosby released the single "Pennies from Heaven" recorded with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra on Decca Records. Dorsey later left Crosby to concentrate on his own career, and he did well commercially. After breaking up their previous band, and competing with each other, Dorsey and his brother Tommy reunited in 1945.

They continued to perform unto the 1950's. The Dorsey brothers' deaths (Tommy choked to death in his sleep in 1956 and Jimmy died from cancer in 1957) brought an end to the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. At the time of his death on June 12, 1957, Jimmy's final hit song, "So Rare", was in 2nd place on the music charts. Jimmy Dorsey appeared in a number of Hollywood motion pictures, including That Girl From Paris, Shall We Dance, The Fleet's In, Lost in a Harem with Abbot and Costello, I Dood It, and the bio-pic with his brother Tommy, The Fabulous Dorseys in 1947. He is buried at Annunciation Blessed Virgin Mary Church Cemetery in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.