Boyd Raeburn

Boyd Albert Raeburn (October 27, 1913 – August 2, 1966)^[1] was an American jazz bandleader and bass saxophonist.

Boyd Raeburn
Boyd Raeburn, c. June 1946 Photograph by William P. Gottlieb
Background information
Birth name	Boyd Albert Raeburn
Born	(1913-10-27)October 27, 1913 Faith, South Dakota, U.S.
Died	2 August 1966(1966-08-02) (aged 52) Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S.
Genres	Jazz
Occupation	Musician
Instrument	Saxophone

Career

He was born in Faith, South Dakota, United States.^[1] Raeburn attended the University of Chicago, where he led a campus band.^[1] He gained his earliest experience as a commercial bandleader at Chicago's World Fair (1933–1934).^[2] For the rest of the decade, he worked in dance bands, sometimes leading them.^[3]

In the next decade, the group passed through swing before becoming identified with the bop school.^[2] His later big band, which was active c. 1944-1947, performed arrangements that were often comparable to those used by Woody Herman and the "progressive jazz" of Stan Kenton during the same period.^[3] The compositions arranged by George Handy were the most contemporary, utilizing dissonance somewhat in the manner of Igor Stravinsky.^{[citation needed]} Johnny Richards joined in 1947, following Handy and stayed for a year writing 50 compositions.^[3]

Later life and death

Raeburn's second wife was the singer Ginny Powell, for whom he wrote "Rip Van Winkle". The couple married in 1946,^[2] and had two children.^[4] As well as singing with her husband's group, Powell also sang with Harry James and Gene Krupa.^[4] Raeburn left music in the mid-1950s.^[3] Powell died in Nassau in the Bahamas in 1959 from meningitis; the couple had moved there.^[4] He settled in New Orleans and ran a furniture store.^[5]

Raeburn died from a heart attack in 1966 in Lafayette, Louisiana, aged 52.^[1] Boyd Raeburn's first wife was Lorraine Anderson, with whom he had one child; the union ended in divorce. His son with Powell, Bruce Boyd Raeburn^[4] of New Orleans, was the curator of the William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz at the Tulane University in New Orleans until December 2017.^[4]

Discography

• Boyd Meets Stravinski (Savoy, 1955)
• Man with the Horns (Savoy, 1955)
• Dance Spectacular (Columbia, 1956)
• Fraternity Rush (Columbia, 1957)
• On the Air Vol. 1 (Hep, 1974)
• Rhythms by Raeburn (Aircheck, 1977)
• Experiments in Big Band Jazz 1945 (Musicraft, 1980)