Donald Lindley 1899-1961.
Trumpeteer, Arranger, Composer.
Donald
Lindley was born in
In
Jan 1915 (Rochester Democrat
and Chronicle, Jan 17, 1915), Donald appeared in the Victory Theatre
and was
billed as a “phenomenal young
In
Sep 1918, when he
registered for the WWI draft, James Donald Lindley was a musician for
the
Lyceum Theater.
From
Variety, Jun 1919: “ A
new act opened here this week at the Family, called
Lindley's Six Serenaders. Four men and two women do vocal and
Instrumental
numbers. The people In the act hail from this city, headed by William
Lindley,
for years a member of the Temple Theatre orchestra, and his son, Donald Lindley, formerly in the pit
at tbe
Lyceum “
In
1920, he was still living
in
In
mid 1922 he was a member
of the Paul Specht orchestra which consisted of :
Frank Guarente. cornet; Donald Lindley, cornet; Raymond Sillwell,
trombone;
Francis Smith, saxophone; John O'Donnell. saxophone; Harold Saliers,
saxophone;
Arthur Schutt, piano; Russell Deppe, banjo; Chauncey Moorehouse, drums;
James
Tarto, bass, and Paul Specht, violinist and director. Don recorded with
Specht
between June 1922 and March 1923 when he was replaced by Elwood Moyer.
The
first
recording session under the name of Paul Specht was on June 24, 1922.
The
musicians were: Paul Specht, vn, dir; Frank Guarente, Donald Lindley,
t; Ray
Stilwell, tb; Harold Sailers, cl, as, bcl; Johnny O'Donnell, cl, as;
Frank
Smith, cl, ts; Al Monquin, bsx; Arthur Schutt, p; Russell
Deppe, bj;
Joe Tarto, bb; Chauncey Morehouse, d. The tunes: "A Dream of Romany"
and "In Rose-Time." This was issued on Col A-3738 as Paul Specht's
Society Serenaders.
A
Dream of
Romany. http://ia601408.us.archive.org/24/items/PaulSpechtOrchestra-01-10/PaulSpechtOrch-ADreamOfRomamaryest1921-1924_64kb.mp3
According
to Variety of May 24, 1923, Lindley was under contract with Specht
between June
1, 1922 and March 31, 1923. Specht sued Lindley for $1,000 for breach
of
contract on March 16, 1923 when Lindley refused to perform with the
band. In
addition, prior to that, Lindley had been absent intermittently and
reported
under the influence of intoxicants.
For
about a
year beginning in August 1924, Lindley was a member of George Olsen’s
Orchestra. He was a replacement for Red Nichols. One of the
recordingswais the Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams jazz standard
"Everybody Loves My Baby."
In
mid
1925, Donald Lindley joined Ross Gorman’ Earl Carroll Orchestra. Donald
Lindley
was the composer of “Rhythm of the Day,” one of the songs featured in
the 1925
Vanities.
Variety
carried a full page ad for the opening of the Vanities.
You
will
notice that Donald Lindley is listed as “trumpet and arranger.” Two of
the musicians
in the orchestra were Red Nichols and Miff Mole. In the Brooklyn Daily
Star of
Aug 17, 1925, Donald Lindley is listed as “trumpet (and arranger),
recently
with Roger Wolfe Kahn Orchestra.”
The
Earl
Carroll Vanities opened on Jul 26, 1925 and closed on Dec 27, 1925.
Just a few
days later, on Dec 31, 1925, Donald Lindley recorded two of his
compositions,
“Trumpet Blues” and “Sweet Stuff” as trumpet solos accompanied by
Arthur Schutt
on piano
and David Grupp on
traps.
Don
Lindley
is listed as one of the arrangers in an ad in for the Oriole Orchestra
in
Variety, Jul 21, 1926.
Between
March and Sep 1928, Lindley was a member of the Paul Ash band and made
several
recordings with the full band as well as with a smaller contingent by
the name
of Donald Lindley and His Boys. Lindley is listed in this ad in Variety.
In the
1940 US Census Lindley
is listed as working for NBC Radio in
Between
1949 and 1951, the
ABC TV network had a weekly program on Sundays at 7 pm originating in
Some
photos of Donald
Lindley.
The
guy with the cap on.
The
guy on top of the
pyramid.
