Clyde Hurley
Man with glasses and a bow tie, holding a trumpet looking down toward another man out of the frame.
Advertisement for Selmer instruments. New York, 25th, Sep - 20th, November, 1939.
Background information
Born(1916-09-03)September 3, 1916
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
DiedAugust 14, 1963(1963-08-14) (aged 46)
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
Genresbig band, jazz, swing
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)Trumpet
Years activec. 1937–1955

Clyde Lanham Hurley, Jr. (September 3, 1916 – August 14, 1963)[1][2] was a trumpeter during the big band era.[3] He was born in Fort Worth, Texas to Clyde Lanham Hurley and Esther Brown.[2][4] Scott Yanow describes Hurley as "a fine trumpeter with a fat tone and a hard-driving style".[5] He died of a coronary occlusion in Fort Worth leaving two sons and a former wife.[1]

Career

Self-taught, he learned to play the trumpet by playing along with Louis Armstrong records. His talent was encouraged and nurtured by his mother, Esther Brown Hurley, who had a career in the early days of Texas radio traveling by train from Fort Worth to stations in San Antonio and Houston where she sang and played piano live. He studied music at the Texas Christian University in Fort Worth from 1932 to 1936 where he participated in the school's jazz band.[6] He began his career working with territory bands. In 1937, while drummer/band-leader Ben Pollack was touring through Texas he heard Hurley and invited him to join his orchestra where Hurley soloed on "So Unexpectedly".[7] After a year with Pollack, while on tour in Los Angeles, Hurley left to become a studio musician.[7] Hurley was playing with Paul Whiteman when Glenn Miller sent for him to join the Miller band on its Glen Island Casino opening in May 1939, the year following fellow Fort Worthian Tex Beneke[8] joining Miller's band. Beneke recommended Hurley to Miller.

During the time he was with Miller, Hurley was one of the key soloists. He appeared on the band's studio recordings and live performances throughout America, including Carnegie Hall, Cafe Rouge in Hotel Pennsylvania and the Paramount Theatre, New York City. He shared trumpet solo honors with John Best, with Hurley taking the "hot" solos and Best taking the rest. Hurley played the trumpet solo on Glenn Miller's "In The Mood", "Slip Horn Jive" and "Tuxedo Junction."[5] After a difference of opinion with Miller over the style of music the band was playing, Hurley left Miller in May 1940 to work with Tommy Dorsey and then joined Artie Shaw in 1941.

After his stint with Shaw, he did freelance work for the movie studios. In 1941, he played the trumpet track for the classic Walter Lantz cartoon "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B." He worked for MGM from 1944 to 1949 and for NBC from 1950 to 1955. During the late 1950s, Hurley played in Dixieland groups, recording with Matty Matlock's Rampart Street Paraders. In 1954, he recorded live with Ralph Sutton and Edmond Hall at the Club Hangover. His studio work in the 1950s included sessions with Paul Weston. He played solo on "Memories of You" on Weston's "Solo Flight" album.

Family

On April 20, 1940, Hurley was listed in the census as living with his then wife, Katherine Ann Foster (b. June 7, 1917, d. September 3, 1994) at 4114 Prescott Ave., Dallas, Texas, the house of his in-laws. Hurley had two sons: Clyde Lanham Hurley III (b. 1937, d. 2022); and Lawrence Foster Hurley (b. 1941). [9]

Sources

  • Flower, John (1972). Moonlight Serenade: a bio-discography of the Glenn Miller Civilian Band. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House. ISBN 0-87000-161-2.
  • Simon, George Thomas (1980). Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. New York: Da Capo paperback. ISBN 0-306-80129-9.
  • Schuller, Gunther (1991). The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507140-9.

References

  1. 1 2 Certificate of Death (Microfilm) (Report). Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas: Texas Department of State Health Services. August 14, 1963. Retrieved February 16, 2015. Name: Mr Clyde Lanham Hurley Junior; Birth Date: 3 Sep 1916; Birth Place: Fort Worth, Texas; Gender: Male; Race: White; Residence: Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas; Father: Clyde L Hurley; Mother: Esther Brown; Age at Death: 46; Death Date: 14 Aug 1963; Death Place: Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, USA; Cause of death: Coronary occlusion
  2. 1 2 "004478201". Standard Certificate of Birth (Microfilm) (Report). Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas: Texas State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. September 3, 1916. p. 186 of 648. Retrieved February 15, 2015. 38619 Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Texas, Clyde L. Hurley Jr., Male, September 3, 1916, Father: Clyde L. Hurley, Fort Worth, Texas, White, Age 20, Born: McKinney, Texas, Telegraph Operator, Mother: Esther Brown, Fort Worth, Texas, White, Age 19, Gorman, Texas, Housewife, Born at 8:30pm in Fort Worth, Texas.
  3. ↑ Dave Oliphant (June 15, 2010). "Hurley, Clyde Lanham, Jr". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved February 15, 2015. Jazz trumpeter Clyde Lanham Hurley, Jr., was born in Fort Worth on September 3, 1916. He was the son of Clyde L. and Esther B. (Temple) Hurley. He first studied music with his mother, who was a professional pianist and vocalist. Influenced by early Louis Armstrong recordings, Hurley switched from piano to trumpet and worked with local bands. He attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth from 1932 to 1936 (playing for all four years in the school jazz band) and joined the Ben Pollack Orchestra in 1937 when it was touring Texas. He moved to California with the band and in the spring of 1939 joined the Glenn Miller Orchestra. With Miller Hurley was recorded playing perhaps the orchestra's most famous solo, the one for trumpet on Miller's "In the Mood." Hurley also took other fine solos, including appearances on Miller recordings of "Stardust," "Glen Island Special" (a tune written by Texan Eddie Durham), and "Rug Cutter's Swing," as well as on "One O'Clock Jump," recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1939. In 1940 Hurley left Miller to join the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and the next year he signed on with the Artie Shaw Orchestra. During the rest of the 1940s he worked in Hollywood. He worked in the NBC television studios in the 1950s and later freelanced for various television, film, record, and radio companies. He was seen in many films, including The Five Pennies (1959) and The Gene Krupa Story (1959). Hurley died in Fort Worth on August 14, 1963. He was survived by a wife and two sons.
  4. ↑ Fourteenth Census of the United States, United States census, 1920; Fort Worth Ward 11, Tarrant, Texas; roll T625_1849, page 5A, line 2, enumeration district 144, Family History film 757, National Archives film number 757. Retrieved on 2015-02-15.
  5. 1 2 Scott Yanow. "Artist Biography by Scott Yanow". AllMusic, a division of All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved February 16, 2015. Although his name is now quite obscure, Clyde Hurley took a trumpet solo that has been heard dozens of times by the average American; the familiar chorus on Glenn Miller's "In the Mood." Hurley originally taught himself to play by soloing along with Louis Armstrong records. He started out working with territory bands and then was discovered by Ben Pollack (who was traveling through Texas) in 1937. After a year with Pollack, Hurley settled in Los Angeles to become a studio musician. However, Glenn Miller signed him up in 1939 and, during his year with Miller, Hurley was a key soloist as can be heard on the bandleader's Carnegie Hall concert and his studio recordings. The trumpeter spent time in the big bands of Tommy Dorsey (1940-1941) and Artie Shaw (1941) and then freelanced in the studios, most notably for MGM (1944-1949) and NBC (1950-1955). Hurley also played in Dixieland groups in the '50s including Matty Matlock's Rampart Street Paraders and on a heated (and fortunately recorded) live set from the Club Hangover in 1954 with Ralph Sutton and Edmond Hall. Clyde Hurley, a fine trumpeter with a fat tone and a hard-driving style, led two recording dates resulting in four numbers for Keynote in 1946 and five for Crown in 1950.
  6. ↑ Dave Oliphant (December 3, 2009). Jazz Mavericks of the Lone Star State. University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292778870. Other Fort Worth musicians include ... tenor saxophonist and vocalist Tex Beneke ... and trumpeter Clyde Hurley (born September 3, 1916). ... most famously on "In the Mood" in 1939 when Hurley, who had studied music at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, performed the tune's memorable trumpet solo.
  7. 1 2 Scott Yanow (2001). The Trumpet Kings: The Players who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 9780879306403. After gaining experience working locally, Hurley was heard by bandleader Ben Pollack when the drummer was passing through Texas. Hurley joined Pollack in 1938 (taking a solo on his record "So Unexpectedly"). However, he left the band when it toured Los Angeles the following year so that he could become a studio musician, one of many notable Pollack "discoveries" that eventually deserted him for more lucrative work...
  8. ↑ Gilliland, John (1994). Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s (audiobook). ISBN 978-1-55935-147-8. OCLC 31611854. Tape 2, side A.
  9. ↑ Sixteenth Census of the United States, United States census, 1940; Dallas, Dallas, Texas; roll T627_4172, page 20B, line 79, enumeration district 255-22, Family History film 005458086, National Archives film number T627. Retrieved on April 25, 2015.
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