Don Elliott

An extremely popular figure throughout the 1950s, Don Elliott stood out as a skilled soloist working within the swing idiom. His earliest training centered on piano and accordion before he took up baritone horn and mellophone in his high school ensemble. He later moved to trumpet amid gigs with local dance bands and, while still a teenager, collaborated with peer Bill Evans. In the mid-1940s Elliott pursued harmony studies at New York’s Institute of Musical Art and subsequently performed on trumpet in a military band. He next enrolled at the University of Miami in 1947 to examine arranging and vibes. Back in New York he appeared alongside George Shearing, Teddy Wilson, and Benny Goodman. Additional performances and recordings followed with Terry Gibbs and Buddy Rich, after which Elliott assembled his own group. For five consecutive years in the late 1950s he captured Down Beat’s “miscellaneous instrument” award. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he contributed to Broadway productions while writing film scores and advertising jingles for radio and television. In 1975 he reentered the jazz scene as a featured soloist with the New York Jazz Repertory Company at Carnegie Hall.