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US Military Service Bands: Histories & Heroes

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By Chris M. Slawecki
September 9, 2019
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In terms of instrumentation and arranging as far as band was concerned, I had a tremendous education in the Air Force in those years that I served there
—John Williams

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

US Air Force Airmen of Note

The premier jazz ensemble of the US Air Force, the

The Airmen of Note

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">The Airmen of Note is one of six musical ensembles that comprise The US Air Force Band. Created in 1950 to continue the tradition of Major

" data-original-title="" title="">Glenn Miller's Army Air Forces dance band, the Airmen of Note present big band as well as more contemporary forms of jazz across the US, to deployments around the world, and local performances in Washington, DC.

The Airmen of Note have collaboratively performed and recorded with such jazz luminaries as

Dizzy Gillespie

trumpet
1917 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Dizzy Gillespie,

Joe Williams

vocals
1918 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Williams,

Sarah Vaughan

vocals
1924 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Sarah Vaughan and

Doc Severinsen

trumpet
b.1927

" data-original-title="" title="">Doc Severinsen; in 1990, they established their Jazz Heritage Radio Broadcast Series, which features the Airmen performing with jazz icons and broadcast to millions over National Public Radio, independent jazz radio stations, and satellite and online radio stations.

Trombonist

Glenn Miller

trombone
1904 - 1944

" data-original-title="" title="">Glenn Miller was already a successful civilian bandleader and recording artist when he joined the Air Force in 1942. Miller restructured the Air Force band and orchestra from a traditional military marching band into a contemporary dance ensemble that contributed one of the most important songbooks to the entire swing generation. Miller's strong jazz inclinations directly led to the formation of the Airmen of Note, who played his band in the famous biopic The Glenn Miller Story.

Sammy Nestico

composer / conductor
1924 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Sammy Nestico, who worked as composer and arranger for the likes of

Sarah Vaughan

vocals
1924 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Sarah Vaughan,

Count Basie

piano
1904 - 1984

" data-original-title="" title="">Count Basie, and

Frank Sinatra

vocals
1915 - 1998

" data-original-title="" title="">Frank Sinatra, served as arranger in the USAF band for fifteen years (plus another five in the US Marine Corps Band). Grammy-and Oscar-winning composer

Henry Mancini

composer / conductor
1924 - 1994

" data-original-title="" title="">Henry Mancini served in the USAF band. Keyboardist

Tom Coster

keyboards
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Tom Coster (

Santana

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Santana), drummer

David Garibaldi

drums
b.1946

" data-original-title="" title="">David Garibaldi (

Tower of Power

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Tower of Power), trumpeter Rufus Reed, and drummer

Grady Tate

drums
1932 - 2017

" data-original-title="" title="">Grady Tate also served in the USAF band.

Composer

John Williams

clarinet
b.1928

" data-original-title="" title="">John Williams entered the USAF in 1952. His primary duties were pianist and brass player, but he also composed and arranged for the band. "In terms of instrumentation and arranging as far as band was concerned, I had a tremendous education in the Air Force in those years that I served there," Williams recalled in a 2016 interview on The USAF Band YouTube channel. ""I don't think there's any question that it was part of my musical formation and my formation as a musician and probably as a person also."

US Army Bands, US Army Blues

Gen. John J. Pershing, Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces on the Western European front during World War I, was so convinced that that bands were essential to troop morale that he instituted training to improve the Army's band program, and nearly doubled regimental band strengths from 28 to 48 pieces. Nearly five hundred bands served in the US Army during World War II.

One of the most prestigious army bands today is the United States Army band known as "Pershing's Own." The

U.S. Army Blues

" data-original-title="" title="">U.S. Army Blues, the premier jazz ensemble of the US Army, was officially established as part of "Pershing's Own" in 1972. The US Army Blues play seldom-performed yet historically significant music from the Library's jazz archives, in collaboration with the US Library of Congress, to preserve the tradition of America's unique art form: jazz.

The US Army Blues has shared the stage with

Dave Brubeck

piano
1920 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">Dave Brubeck,

Doc Severinsen

trumpet
b.1927

" data-original-title="" title="">Doc Severinsen,

Stanley Turrentine

saxophone, tenor
1934 - 2000

" data-original-title="" title="">Stanley Turrentine,

Slide Hampton

trombone
1932 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Slide Hampton and Dr. Billy Taylor in performances at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival, Birdland in New York City, Blues Alley in Washington, DC, and other historic venues. US Army Blues members include Master Sgt. drummer

Steve Fidyk

drums
b.1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Steve Fidyk, who has appeared on more than one hundred recordings (including sets from

Tim Hagans

trumpet
b.1954

" data-original-title="" title="">Tim Hagans,

Wycliffe Gordon

trombone
b.1967

" data-original-title="" title="">Wycliffe Gordon,

Slide Hampton

trombone
1932 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Slide Hampton and Arturo Sandoval, and serves on the jazz faculty at Philadelphia's Temple University and University of the Arts; and Master Sgt. trumpeter

Graham Breedlove

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Graham Breedlove, who has appeared on more than two hundred recordings and also served as soloist, composer, arranger and musical director on Voodoo Boogaloo (2010) and Back to the Bayou (2015) by another Army ensemble, the roots-rockers US Army Blues Swamp Romp.

Active for the past two decades, the US Army Blues Swamp Romp performs the traditional jazz and folk music of New Orleans to support recruiting and community volunteer service efforts, and presents concerts and clinics in public schools and universities to promote the proven benefits across childhood music participation and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

World War II through Vietnam

Many jazz greats served in the US Army between the 1940s and 1970s. Pianist

Dave Brubeck

piano
1920 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">Dave Brubeck was drafted into the Army in 1942. Asked to form a band after playing at a Red Cross show, Brubeck put together the Wolfpack, the first racially integrated band in any branch of the US military; the pianist also met longtime collaborator

Paul Desmond

saxophone, alto
1924 - 1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul Desmond while both were in the service.

Tony Bennett

vocals
1926 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Tony Bennett was drafted in 1944 and served as a rifleman in the 63rd Infantry Division (known as the "Blood and Fire Division") before being reassigned to a special services band, where he sang under his first stage name, Joe Bari.

"So many of my Army buddies did well in the music world after the war," Bennett recalled in his 1998 autobiography The Good Life (Pocket Books). "George Duly went into

Les Brown

composer / conductor
1912 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Les Brown's band; George Masso began his postwar career playing trombone for

Jimmy Dorsey

composer / conductor
1904 - 1957

" data-original-title="" title="">Jimmy Dorsey and later became a composer; Dick Dorsheck became the principal composer for the BBC Radio and Television Orchestra;

Red Mitchell

bass
1927 - 1992

" data-original-title="" title="">Red Mitchell was for many years the leading bassist on the West Coast jazz scene; Janie Thompson, a devout Mormon, has devoted her life to music education at Brigham Young University; and Jack Elliott became a major composer of movie and television soundtracks."

While on a US Army band world tour to entertain the troops, saxophonist

Joe Henderson

saxophone
1937 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Henderson managed to hang out in Paris with

Kenny Drew

piano
1928 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Drew and

Kenny Clarke

drums
1914 - 1985

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Clarke.

Cannonball Adderley

saxophone
1928 - 1975

" data-original-title="" title="">Cannonball Adderley led a small ensemble during his US Army service. The Army drafted saxophonist and founding

Weather Report

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Weather Report member

Wayne Shorter

saxophone
1933 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Wayne Shorter in 1956, who managed to work with

Max Roach

drums
1925 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Max Roach,

Oscar Pettiford

bass
1922 - 1960

" data-original-title="" title="">Oscar Pettiford, and

Horace Silver

piano
1928 - 2014

" data-original-title="" title="">Horace Silver during his two years of military service. Drummer

Elvin Jones

drums
1927 - 2004

" data-original-title="" title="">Elvin Jones served in the late 1940s, and drummer Steve Gadd in the late 1960s into the early '70s.

US Navy Band

The United States Navy Band was established as the official US Navy Band in 1925. The Navy Band's jazz ensemble, The Commodores, was founded in 1969.

Trumpeter

Clark Terry

trumpet
1920 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Clark Terry and saxophonist

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane both served in the US Navy Band. Terry enlisted in 1942 and was assigned to the band at Great Lakes Training Station in Illinois. (During the first World War, march king John Phillip Sousa was commissioned as bandmaster of this Great Lakes Naval Base Band.) Other jazzmen who emerged from this same US Navy "Great Lakes experience" include saxophonists

Von Freeman

saxophone, tenor
1922 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">Von Freeman and

Ernie Wilkins

arranger
1922 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Ernie Wilkins, composer-arranger

Gerald Wilson

composer / conductor
1918 - 2014

" data-original-title="" title="">Gerald Wilson, and trombone player

Al Grey

trombone
1925 - 2000

" data-original-title="" title="">Al Grey. Terry played in the Navy band until 1945 and later found stardom as featured soloist with The Tonight Show band.

John Coltrane was drafted and assigned to the Navy in 1945. 'Trane made two of his earliest jazz recordings (including "Hot House" by

Dizzy Gillespie

trumpet
1917 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Dizzy Gillespie and "Koko" by Charlie Parker) as a member of a Navy band called the Melody Masters while serving in Hawaii.

Jazz musicians who served in US Navy Bands also include trumpeter and bandleader

Ray Anthony

trumpet
b.1922

" data-original-title="" title="">Ray Anthony, clarinetist and bandleader

Artie Shaw

clarinet
1910 - 2004

" data-original-title="" title="">Artie Shaw, and trombonist

Bill Watrous

trombone
1939 - 2018

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Watrous. Trumpeter

Mike Vax

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Mike Vax jumped directly from the US Navy Show Band into the

Stan Kenton Orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Stan Kenton Orchestra and eventual leadership of the

Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra.

The US Navy Commodores have hosted jazz performances by such legends as Louie Belson,

Jerry Bergonzi

saxophone, tenor
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Jerry Bergonzi,

Ray Charles

piano and vocals
1930 - 2004

" data-original-title="" title="">Ray Charles, Dave Leibman,

Bob Mintzer

saxophone
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Bob Mintzer,

Chris Potter

saxophone, tenor
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Chris Potter and

Stanley Turrentine

saxophone, tenor
1934 - 2000

" data-original-title="" title="">Stanley Turrentine.

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