Ray Nance was a multi-talented individual. He was a fine trumpeter who not only replaced
Cootie Williams with
Duke Ellington's Orchestra, but gave the "plunger" position in
Duke's band his own personality. In addition,
Nance was one of the finest jazz violinists of the 1940s, an excellent jazz singer, and even a dancer. He studied piano, took lessons on violin, and was self-taught on trumpet. After leading a small group in Chicago (1932-1937), spending periods with the orchestras of
Earl Hines (1937-1938) and
Horace Henderson (1939-1940), and a few months as a solo act,
Nance joined
Duke Ellington's orchestra. His very first night on the job was fully documented as the band's legendary Fargo concert. A very valuable sideman,
Nance played a famous trumpet solo on the original version of "Take the 'A' Train" and proved to be a fine wa-wa player; his violin added color to the suite "Black, Brown and Beige" (in addition to being showcased on numerous songs), and his singing on numbers such as "A Slip of a Lip Will Sink a Ship" and "Tulip or Turnip" was an added feature.
Nance was with
Ellington with few interruptions until 1963; by then the returning
Cootie Williams had taken some of his glory. The remainder of
Nance's career was relatively insignificant, with occasional small-group dates, gigs with
Brooks Kerr and
Chris Barber (touring England in 1974), and a few surprisingly advanced sideman recordings with
Jaki Byard and
Chico Hamilton. ~ Scott Yanow