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Ray Nance was a multi-talented individual. He was a fine trumpeter who not only replaced <a href="spotify:artist:4zef2ByBl6wZGFPvYWve6o">Cootie Williams</a> with <a href="spotify:artist:4F7Q5NV6h5TSwCainz8S5A">Duke Ellington's Orchestra</a>, but gave the "plunger" position in <a href="spotify:artist:4F7Q5NV6h5TSwCainz8S5A">Duke</a>'s band his own personality. In addition, Nance was one of the finest jazz violinists of the 1940s, an excellent jazz singer, and even a dancer. He studied piano, took lessons on violin, and was self-taught on trumpet. After leading a small group in Chicago (1932-1937), spending periods with the orchestras of <a href="spotify:artist:2mY5u4CceAPrpBnse1WpFr">Earl Hines</a> (1937-1938) and <a href="spotify:artist:5CH9h1pnlwBLqi38RiqZLM">Horace Henderson</a> (1939-1940), and a few months as a solo act, Nance joined <a href="spotify:artist:4F7Q5NV6h5TSwCainz8S5A">Duke Ellington</a>'s orchestra. His very first night on the job was fully documented as the band's legendary Fargo concert. A very valuable sideman, Nance played a famous trumpet solo on the original version of "Take the 'A' Train" and proved to be a fine wa-wa player; his violin added color to the suite "Black, Brown and Beige" (in addition to being showcased on numerous songs), and his singing on numbers such as "A Slip of a Lip Will Sink a Ship" and "Tulip or Turnip" was an added feature. Nance was with <a href="spotify:artist:4F7Q5NV6h5TSwCainz8S5A">Ellington</a> with few interruptions until 1963; by then the returning <a href="spotify:artist:4zef2ByBl6wZGFPvYWve6o">Cootie Williams</a> had taken some of his glory. The remainder of Nance's career was relatively insignificant, with occasional small-group dates, gigs with <a href="spotify:artist:4HPXFrgoK2kab4khz2NeE4">Brooks Kerr</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:22La2Rm0bDntXkMXGhNQgU">Chris Barber</a> (touring England in 1974), and a few surprisingly advanced sideman recordings with <a href="spotify:artist:7pZNp3BIssAHQ9jJZssq3Y">Jaki Byard</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:31NF3yc9DoAdh2bgR6mY04">Chico Hamilton</a>. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi
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