Ray Linn

• Born: October 20, 1920, Chicago, IL
• Died: November 04, 1996, Columbus, OH
• Active: '40s, '70s, '80s
• Genres: Jazz
• Instrument: Trumpet
• Representative Albums: "Eastside Jump/Where's Pres?

Biography

A versatile trumpeter, Ray Linn started out as a modernist and ended up as a revivalist. Linn began his professional career playing with the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey (1938-1941) and Woody Herman (1941-1942); he would rejoin Herman on three occasions (1945, 1947, and 1955-1959). Linn also worked on and off with Jimmy Dorsey (1942-1945), Benny Goodman (1943 and 1947), Artie Shaw (1944-1946), and Boyd Raeburn (1946). While with Raeburn, his solos were quite advanced for the period. Linn became a studio musician after moving to Los Angeles in 1945, but had the opportunity to work with Bob Crosby (1950-1951) and many of the top West Coast jazz players in the 1950s in addition to Woody Herman. From the 1960s on, he mostly worked in television. Although his sessions as a leader in 1946 (which resulted in eight songs) had such titles as "The Mad Monk" and "Blop Blah," Ray Linn's later albums for Trend (1978) and Discovery (1980) were Dixieland-oriented. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide