Marion 'Buddy' Childers, 81, trumpeter for big bands
LOS ANGELES -- Marion "Buddy" Childers -- who played lead trumpet in the big bands of such jazz luminaries as Stan Kenton, Tommy Dorsey, and Quincy Jones and later led his own ensemble -- died May 24 at his Woodland Hills home from complications of cancer, said his son Jeffrey of Mira Loma. He was 81.
A self-taught performer, arranger, and composer, Mr. Childers was only 16 when he landed a spot in the Kenton band. Other band members couldn't believe "that a young guy could play like that," Mr. Childers recalled in a 1996 interview with the Los Angeles Times, but they also resented him because "I hadn't paid my dues."
In the 1940s, Mr. Childers married Jan Brodeur, and they had five children before their divorce.
Big bands were a mainstay of his career. Often he held the position of lead trumpet, which required him to provide the main melodic line and to play higher and louder than anyone else. In later years he sometimes played fluegelhorn. His airy, delicate sound on the instrument demonstrated that "he can play with both subtlety and persuasion," a Times music critic wrote in 1985.
Mr. Childers played with notables such as Benny Carter, Les Brown, and Woody Herman. He also released his own albums, including "Buddy Childers Quintet" in 1955. Half a century later, he finished his last, still unreleased, CD, "Haunted Ballroom." 