Trumpeter Don Goldie (1930-95) is probably best remembered for his association with Jack Teagarden for he was a member of the trombonist’s last working group during 1959-63. However there was more to Goldie than being a technically skilled Dixieland player.
The son of trumpeter Harry “Goldie” Goldfield who played with Paul Whiteman for 15 years, he studied violin and piano before settling on the trumpet when he was ten. Goldie played with his father’s orchestra when he was 14, served in the Army during 1951-54, and had stints with Joe Mooney, Neal Hefti, Buddy Rich, and Gene Krupa before joining Teagarden. After the trombonist’s passing, the versatile trumpeter spent some time as a studio musician, eventually settled in Miami, and recorded 11 albums for his Jazz Forum label in the late 1970s, mostly in a quartet setting.
However during 1961-62 when he was still with Teagarden, Goldie recorded what were arguably his two finest albums. Reissued as part of Fresh Sound’s “Rare and Obscure Jazz Albums” series as Presenting Don Goldie, the single-CD has all of the music from those two sets. Trumpet Caliente features the Goldie in ensembles (a sextet and an octet) arranged by Manny Albam that also feature Leo Wright (a former member of Dizzy Gillespie’s group) on alto and flute. They perform two Goldie originals, the lesser-known “Nightingale,” and versions of “I Hear a Rhapsody,” “Shiny Stockings” and “There Will Never Be Another You.” Some of the performances utilize bossa-nova rhythms which were becoming popular at the time.
The second album, Brilliant, is Don Goldie at his very best. In a quintet also including pianist Eddie Higgins, guitarist Fred Rundquist, bassist Richard Evans, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, Goldie’s playing lives up to the album’s title. He rips through Raymond Scott’s “The Toy Trumpet,” and takes hot solos on such numbers as “Soon,” “Someday You’ll Be Sorry,” “Look Out For The Silver Lining,” and “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue.” His tone is impeccable, his solos are full of joy, and he makes the case for being considered one of the most underrated trumpeters of the era.
Presenting Don Goldie
Fresh Sound FSR CD 1084
www.freshsoundrecords.com
Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings.
Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.
