Biography
Benny Strickler's abbreviated run as a trumpeter reached its close inside a sanatorium situated in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Absent a tuberculosis diagnosis, nothing would have drawn him back to that hometown, where most inhabitants equate jazz with nothing more than dog food hauled in from Alabama. Local groups occupied him during the earliest phase of his work, yet by nineteen he had already headed west to California and begun performing with the Seger Ellis Brass Choir.
What set his subsequent affiliations apart was the rare overlap between conventional swing orchestras and the celebrated Western swing unit assembled by Bob Wills, where Strickler remained a steady member for nearly two years starting in 1941. Among those swing engagements stood an unfortunately underemployed and under-documented large ensemble directed by fellow trumpeter Wingy Manone, together with a smaller unit featuring violinist Joe Venuti. His last engagement before illness struck came in 1942, when he filled the trumpet chair Lu Watters vacated after being drafted; the resulting spot in the attractive-sounding Yerba Buena Band endured only a couple of weeks.
What set his subsequent affiliations apart was the rare overlap between conventional swing orchestras and the celebrated Western swing unit assembled by Bob Wills, where Strickler remained a steady member for nearly two years starting in 1941. Among those swing engagements stood an unfortunately underemployed and under-documented large ensemble directed by fellow trumpeter Wingy Manone, together with a smaller unit featuring violinist Joe Venuti. His last engagement before illness struck came in 1942, when he filled the trumpet chair Lu Watters vacated after being drafted; the resulting spot in the attractive-sounding Yerba Buena Band endured only a couple of weeks.