Bunny Berigan is best remembered for his hit recording of “I Can’t Get Started” on which he played trumpet and sang. He was one of the first Jazz horn players to successfully fuse the nuanced tonal palette of Bix Beiderbecke with the bravura power of Louis Armstrong.
A tall handsome dark-haired Irishman, Roland Bernard “Bunny” Berigan (1908-1942) was a charming, popular and charismatic performer deeply adored by his fans and admired by fellow musicians. First-hand accounts suggest that his live performances were electrifying, that there were no words adequate to describing his sound and that you had to be there to experience the magic. Others said his trumpet playing was "life-changing."
The road to fame was long and hard for Berigan. He labored in less than stellar ensembles during his early years, grinding out distracted dance music in hotel orchestras at uninspiring residencies. But starting around 1930 there was growing demand for his gifts from the Dorsey Brothers, the Boswell Sisters, Paul Whiteman, Red Norvo, Artie Shaw, Bing Crosby, the CBS and NBC radio networks and the Columbia, Vocalion, Decca, Victor and Brunswick record companies.
