Warren Covington (August 7, 1921 – August 24, 1999) was an American

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

trombonist. He was active as a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

, arranger, and bandleader throughout his career.

Biography

Covington, who was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, played early on with Isham Jones (1939), then with Les Brown in 1945-46 and

Gene Krupa Eugene Bertram Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973) was an American jazz drummer, bandleader, and composer. Krupa is widely regarded as one of the most influential drummers in the history of popular music. His drum solo on Benny Goodman ...

later in 1946. Following this he became a staff musician for CBS radio. With Ralph Flanagan in 1949 and again in 1955-56. He played briefly with

Tommy Dorsey Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombone, trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-to ...

in 1950. In 1956, he replaced Eddie Grady as leader of the Commanders, a Decca recording and touring band which lasted until the middle of 1957. Covington recorded two albums and one single with this band. After Tommy Dorsey died suddenly in November 1956, the Dorsey band continued under the direction of Jimmy Dorsey. However, the Tommy Dorsey estate soon took back Tommy's arrangements and approached Covington to form a new Tommy Dorsey band, which he led, touring and recording for Decca, into 1961. Among his hits with the Dorsey band was "Tea for Two Cha Cha", which sold over one million copies, and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. The track peaked at #3 in the UK Singles Chart in 1958. A player who also occasionally played, with a variety of the baritone horn, baritone and tenor saxophone, Covington participated in the big bands of

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of ...

, Randy Weston,

Bobby Hackett Robert Leo Hackett (January 31, 1915 – June 7, 1976) was a versatile American jazz musician who played swing music, Dixieland jazz and mood music, now called easy listening, on trumpet, cornet, and guitar. He played Swing with the bands ...

, and

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American jazz fusion guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the ...

on recordings, and also a number of

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

s. He died in 1999 in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Discography

As leader

* ''Shall We Dance?'' (

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

, 1956) * ''Teenage Hop'' (Decca, 1957) * ''Latin Si!'' (Decca, 1962) * ''Dancing Trombones'' (Decca, 1962) * ''Everybody Twist'' (Decca, 1962) * ''Let's Dance Latin'' (Decca, 1964) * ''Golden Trombones Favorites'' (Decca, 1966) * ''Latin Dance Party'' ( Vocalion, 1967) With

* ''The Fabulous Arrangements of Tommy Dorsey in Hi-Fi'' ( Brunswick, 1958) * ''Tea for Two Chas Chas'' (Decca, 1958) * ''More Tea for Two Cha Chas'' (Decca, 1959) * ''The Swingin Era'' (Decca, 1959) * ''Dance and Romance'' (Decca, 1960) * ''Tricky Trombones'' (Decca, 1960) * ''It Takes Two'' (Decca, 1960) * ''Dance to the Songs Everybody Knows'' (Decca, 1961) * ''Golden Trombones Favorites'' (Decca, 1966)

As sideman

, ''Bad Benson'' (CTI, 1974) * Les Brown, ''The Uncollected Les Brown and His Orchestra 1944–1946'' (Hindsight, 1976) *

Chris Connor Mary Jean Loutsenhizer, known professionally as Chris Connor (November 8, 1927 – August 29, 2009), was an American jazz singer. Biography Chris Connor was born Mary Loutsenhizer in Kansas City, Missouri, to Clyde Loutsenhizer and Mabel Sh ...

, ''Chris Connor Sings the George Gershwin Almanac of Song'' (

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, 1957) * Giora Feidman, ''The Art of the Klezmer'' (Star, 1979) *

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, ''Beach Samba'' ( Verve, 1967) *

Eartha Kitt Eartha Mae Kitt (née Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress. She was known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Baby" ...

, '' That Bad Eartha'' (

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

, 1953) *

, ''Thursday's Child'' (RCA Victor, 1957) *

, ''The Gene Krupa Orchestra'' (Durium, 1974) *

Yusef Lateef Yusef Abdul Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston; October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and prominent figure among the Ahmadiyya Community in the United States. Although Lateef's main i ...

, '' Part of the Search'' (Atlantic, 1973) *

Betty Madigan Betty Madigan (born 1928) is an American former traditional popular singer and actress.Harris, Harry (December 24, 1956)"Screening TV--'Stingiest Man'" ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. Retrieved October 18, 2020.Leahy, Jack (April 30, 1961)"Sing a ...

, ''The Jerome Kern Songbook'' (

Coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

, 1958) *

Van McCoy Van Allen Clinton McCoy (January 6, 1940 – July 6, 1979) was an American record producer, arranger, songwriter and singer. He is known for his 1975 internationally successful hit " The Hustle". He has approximately 700 song copyrights to his c ...

, ''Love Is the Answer'' ( Avco, 1974) *

Houston Person Houston Person (born November 10, 1934) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and record producer. Although he has performed in the hard bop and swing music, swing genres, he is most experienced in and best known for his work in soul jazz. He re ...

, ''Harmony'' ( Mercury, 1977) * Don Sebesky, ''Giant Box'' (CTI, 1973) *

George Segal George Segal Jr. (February 13, 1934 – March 23, 2021) was an American actor. He became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles. After first rising to prominence with roles in acclaimed films such as '' Ship o ...

, ''A Touch of Ragtime Featuring the Music of Scott Joplin'' (Signature, 1974) *

Phil Silvers Phil Silvers (born Phillip Silver; May 11, 1911 – November 1, 1985) was an American entertainer and comedic actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah". His career as a professional entertainer spanned nearly 60 years. He achieved major popularity w ...

, '' Phil Silvers and Swinging Brass'' ( Columbia, 1957) * The Spinners, '' Dancin' and Lovin''' (Atlantic, 1979) * Randy Weston, ''Blue Moses'' (CTI, 1972)

References

External links

* Warren Covingtonat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Warren Covington recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database catalog of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The 78rpm era was the time period in which any flat disc records were being played at ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Covington, Warren 1921 births 1999 deaths American jazz trombonists American male trombonists American jazz bandleaders Jazz musicians from Philadelphia 20th-century American trombonists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians