Don Fagerquist


Donald Alton Fagerquist was a small group, big band, and studio jazz trumpet player from the West Coast of the United States.

Career

Fagerquist was a featured soloist with several major bands, including Mal Hallett, Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five, Woody Herman, Les Brown, and the Dave Pell Octet. He played on the Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook album under the baton of Nelson Riddle.
Despite high demand for his services as a lyrical soloist, he recorded only twice as a leader: a half-date for Capitol in 1955 and a complete project for Mode in 1957.
In 1956, Fagerquist signed on as a staff musician for Paramount Films, while still periodically recording with artists such as Shelly Manne, Mel Tormé, and Art Pepper. Throughout the early- to mid-1960s, Fagerquist's solos could be heard on the recordings of Pete Rugolo, Frank Comstock, Nelson Riddle, Billy May, Paul Weston, Si Zentner, Dean Martin and many others.
By 1966, health issues forced Fagerquist to withdraw from studio recording altogether. He died from kidney disease at his home in Canoga Park, California, at the age of 46.

Selected discography

With Chet Baker and Bud Shank
With Louis Bellson
  • Louis Bellson Swings Jule Styne
With Hoagy Carmichael
  • Hoagy Sings Carmichael
With Bob Cooper
  • Coop! The Music of Bob Cooper
With Fred Katz
  • Folk Songs for Far Out Folk
  • Fred Katz and his Jammers
With Stan Kenton
  • The Ballad Style of Stan Kenton
With Junior Mance
  • Get Ready, Set, Jump!!!
  • Straight Ahead!
With Dave Pell
  • Dave Pell Octet Plays Irving Berlin
  • Dave Pell Octet Plays Rodgers & Hart
  • Jazz & Romantic Places
  • Jazz Goes Dancing
  • I Had the Craziest Dream
With Shorty Rogers
With Pete Rugolo
  • Music for Hi-Fi Bugs
  • Out on a Limb
  • An Adventure in Sound: Brass in Hi-Fi
  • Percussion at Work
  • Rugolo Plays Kenton
  • The Music from Richard Diamond
  • The Original Music of Thriller
  • Ten Trumpets and 2 Guitars
With Mel Torme
  • Mel Torme Sings Fred Astaire
  • Mel Torme with the Marty Paich dek-tette
  • California Suite
With the Benny Goodman Orchestra & Brussels World's Fair Orchestra
With Skip Martin's Scheherajazz
  • ''A Symphony in Jazz by the Video All-Stars''