Ray Linn

A versatile trumpeter, Ray Linn started out as a modernist and ended up as a revivalist. Linn began his professional career playing with the orchestras of <a href="spotify:artist:4WoGga7UeRcmjD4ufif4nG">Tommy Dorsey</a> (1938-1941) and <a href="spotify:artist:2KSxJY1WxGGVYSmoM0N54P">Woody Herman</a> (1941-1942); he would rejoin <a href="spotify:artist:2KSxJY1WxGGVYSmoM0N54P">Herman</a> on three occasions (1945, 1947, and 1955-1959). Linn also worked on and off with <a href="spotify:artist:3xPpQCRiTBxgmL4PD8J5ek">Jimmy Dorsey</a> (1942-1945), <a href="spotify:artist:1pBuKaLHJlIlqYxQQaflve">Benny Goodman</a> (1943 and 1947), <a href="spotify:artist:5wam12nGWDBIrLDV78TNSF">Artie Shaw</a> (1944-1946), and <a href="spotify:artist:5E84HDW1BoYkMZ7pQ9JU9a">Boyd Raeburn</a> (1946). While with <a href="spotify:artist:5E84HDW1BoYkMZ7pQ9JU9a">Raeburn</a>, his solos were quite advanced for the period. Linn became a studio musician after moving to Los Angeles in 1945, but had the opportunity to work with <a href="spotify:artist:5lP4FZO4ThhC9glGDwlgrV">Bob Crosby</a> (1950-1951) and many of the top West Coast jazz players in the 1950s in addition to <a href="spotify:artist:2KSxJY1WxGGVYSmoM0N54P">Woody Herman</a>. From the 1960s on, he mostly worked in television. Although his sessions as a leader in 1946 (which resulted in eight songs) had such titles as "The Mad Monk" and "Blop Blah," Ray Linn's later albums for Trend (1978) and Discovery (1980) were Dixieland-oriented. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi