Urbie Green


Urban Clifford "Urbie" Green was an American jazz trombonist who toured with Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Jan Savitt, and Frankie Carle. He played on over 250 recordings and released more than twenty albums as a soloist. He was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1995.

Early years

Green was born in Mobile, Alabama. He was taught the piano as a child by his mother. He learned jazz and popular tunes from the beginning. He started to play trombone, which both older brothers played, when he was about 12. He listened to trombonists Tommy Dorsey, J. C. Higginbotham, Jack Jenney, Jack Teagarden, and Trummy Young, but said he was more influenced by the styles of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Lester Young. His style was also influenced by the vocals of Perry Como and Louis Armstrong. He attended Auburn High School, where he was a member of The Auburn Knights Orchestra.

Career

When Green was fifteen years old, his father died, and he began his music career, first with Tommy Reynolds in California, then with Bob Strong, Jan Savitt, and Frankie Carle. In California, he finished high school at the Hollywood Professional School in Los Angeles. In 1947, he joined Gene Krupa's band. Three years later, he and his brother Jack became members of Woody Herman's Thundering Herd.
In 1953, he moved to New York City, and a year later was voted New Star trombonist in the International Critics Poll of Down Beat magazine. During the 1950s and 1960s he toured with Benny Goodman, and led the Tommy Dorsey orchestra after Dorsey's death in 1956. He worked with record producer Enoch Light on the albums The Persuasive Trombone of Urbie Green and 21 Trombones. Green spent his later life with his second wife Kathy, a jazz singer, at their home in the Pocono Mountains region of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
In 1995, Green was elected into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. He continued playing live at the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts Festival every September into the last years of his life.

Personal life

Green's obituary was published in the Pocono Record.

Discography

As leader

  • Urbie Green Septet
  • A Cool Yuletide
  • Urbie Green and His Band
  • Urbie East Coast Jazz/6
  • Blues and Other Shades of Green
  • All About Urbie Green and His Big Band
  • Jimmy McHugh in Hi-Fi
  • Let's Face the Music and Dance
  • The Best of New Broadway Show Hits - Urbie Green, His Trombone and Rhythm
  • The Persuasive Trombone of Urbie Green
  • The Persuasive Trombone of Urbie Green Vol. 2
  • Urbie Green and His 6-Tet
  • Twenty-One Trombones
  • Twenty-One Trombones Vol. Two
  • Green Power
  • Bein' Green
  • Urbie Green's Big Beautiful Band
  • The Fox
  • Señor Blues
  • The Message
  • Just Friends
  • ''Sea Jam Blues''

    As sideman

With Manny Albam
  • The Drum Suite
  • The Jazz Workshop
  • The Blues Is Everybody's Business
  • Sophisticated Lady
  • Jazz Goes to the Movies
With The Count Basie Orchestra
  • This Time by Basie!
  • Ella and Basie!
  • Basie Land
With Tony Bennett
With Buck Clayton
  • The Huckle-Buck and Robbins' Nest
  • How Hi the Fi
  • Jumpin' at the Woodside
  • Buck Clayton Jams Benny Goodman
  • All the Cats Join In
  • Swingin' Buck Clayton Jams
  • A Buck Clayton Jam Session
With Quincy Jones
  • This Is How I Feel About Jazz
  • The Great Wide World of Quincy Jones
  • The Birth of a Band!
  • Quincy Jones Explores the Music of Henry Mancini
  • Quincy's Got a Brand New Bag
With Mundell Lowe
  • Themes from Mr. Lucky, the Untouchables and Other TV Action Jazz
  • Satan in High Heels
  • Blues for a Stripper
With Astrud Gilberto
With Woody Herman
With Antonio Carlos Jobim
  • Wave
  • Stone Flower
  • Jobim
With J. J. Johnson & Kai Winding
  • Jay & Kai + 6
  • Jay and Kai
  • J.J.'s Broadway
With Enoch Light
  • Provocative Percussion Vol. 2
  • Big Band Bossa Nova
  • My Musical Coloring Book
  • Film Fame Marvelous Movie Themes
  • Permissive Polyphonics
  • The Big Band Sound of the Thirties
  • Big Band Hits of the 30s & 40s
  • Big Hits of the 20s
  • Movie Hits!
  • The Brass Menagerie 1973
  • The Big Band Hits of the 40s & 50s
  • The Disco Disque
With Van McCoy
  • Love Is the Answer
  • Rhythms of the World
  • The Real McCoy
  • And His Magnificent Movie Machine
  • My Favorite Fantasy
  • Lonely Dancer
With Hugo Montenegro
  • Ellington Fantasy
  • Bongos and Brass
  • Arriba!
  • Overture, American Musical Theatre
  • Great Songs from Motion Pictures
  • Boogie Woogie + Bongos
  • The Great Hits of the 50's
  • Montenegro & Mayhem
  • Mira!
With Jimmy Rushing
  • The Jazz Odyssey of Jimmy Rushing
  • Little Jimmy Rushing and the Big Brass
  • Five Feet of Soul
With others