Billy Butterfield

A versatile pre-bop trumpeter with a lovely tone, Billy Butterfield could play fairly ballads and heated Dixieland with equal skill. After early encounter in the middle-’30s using the rings of Austin Wylie and Andy Anderson, Butterfield became well-known while using Bob Crosby’s Orchestra (1937-1940), acquiring the main single on the initial edition of “What’s New,” and producing numerous information with both big band as well as the Bobcats. In 1940, he was with Artie Shaw, taking part in the famed Gramercy Five periods and going for a traditional single on Shaw’s rendition of “Superstar Dust”; furthermore, Butterfield is seen and noticed playing “Concerto for Clarinet” with Shaw in the film Second Chorus. After stints with Benny Goodman (1941) and Les Dark brown, Butterfield spent amount of time in the armed forces, and led a lyrical (but commercially unsuccessful) big music group (1945-1947). He proved helpful mainly in the studios through the 1950s and ’60s, sometimes rising for Dixieland schedules with Eddie Condon, and was an integral person in the World’s Greatest Jazz Music group (1968-1972). In old age, he continued showing up in Dixieland configurations both for information and concerts.