'Corky'
Corcoran (born Gene Patrick Corcoran), a great Tenor Sax player
of the Big Band Era and beyond, was born July 28, 1924 in
Tacoma, Washington, USA.
'Discovered' by
Jimmy Lunceford, Corky began his career at age 16 when he
joined the Sonny Dunham orchestra. Dunham was a trumpet player
who had been with Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra.
By age 17 as of August 1941, remarkably, Corky became the
lead tenor saxophonist with the Harry James Orchestra.
(James himself had been a youthful prodigy as a trumpeter).
Harry James had said of Corky: 'he is the best prospect I have
ever seen.'
Corky had a professional
beginning right out of a Hollywood 'biopic.' The major
bandleader
Jimmie Lunceford had heard him playing at a Tacoma jam
session when Corcoran was still not yet 16 years old, but
considered a regional prodigy.
Sonny Dunham then first put the teenage star saxophonist to
work about 1940. But fellow trumpeter
Harry James was successful in signing Corcoran the
following year, in 1941 -- at least now he was 17 years old.
The story goes that
Corky was so young that Harry James and his new wife
Betty Grable -- the
Number 1 Pinup Girl of the World War II period, had to
assume legal guardianship of Corky so that he could legally
travel and work with the band. Corky later joked about how
unusual (and enviable) it was to have had Betty Grable as his
'mother' for a period of time in those early years.
Corky Corcoran at age 16
Betty
Grable, Actress
Grable as 'Glamour Girl'
Corky became an avid
golfer, and his conversation could focus at length and in
exacting detail on the playing characteristics of various golf
courses, especially in Las Vegas where he belonged to a club and
had friends in the professional golfing world. Corky was
also a baseball fanatic his entire life -- his favorite team was
the St. Louis Cardinals. He fit right in with Harry James
in his baseball enthusiasm, because Harry James fielded his own
baseball team, on which Corky played third base. Corky
once joked that James had probably hired him as much for his
baseball talent as for his sax-playing ability (Corky was an
excellent ballplayer as a young man).
James turned out to be the
Band Leader who would make the most difference in Corcoran's
career, featuring him as a soloist on many concert stages and in
other performance settings. Meanwhile, the
James Band continued to rise in prominence, putting Corcoran
in the limelight on radio and in the movies as well as in live
concerts.
His many appearances on
stage and in films with the James Band earned him considerable
fame. During his early years with James, Corky was hailed
as a prodigy. He placed 2nd in the 1943 and 1944
Downbeat Magazine Poll of leading Big Band Saxophonists.
In May 1948, he became a member of the
Tommy Dorsey band.
In 1949, he led his own
group, but returned to James later that same year, and again in
'51 and '54. In 1957, he left James, and went
on a European tour, after which he returned home to the Pacific
Northwest, and led his own small combo, mainly in Seattle, but
with occasional trips to Los Angeles.
There are several albums
under his name, including both The Sound of Love and
The Sound of Jazz, but his activities as a Bandleader and
Saxophonist were primarily focused on the Seattle area, just as
in his teenage territory band years.
In April 1961, Corky played
lead tenor with the Bill Ramsay Big Band at a famous regional
Big Band Concert at the Roxy Theatre in Tacoma. I have
included an excerpt from that concert of 47 years ago in the MP3
Playlist above. KPLU is a Jazz-FM Radio Station based in
Tacoma, with a program called 'Jazz
Northwest' hosted by Jim Wilke. The station made this
1961 Roxy Theater Concert .mp3 recording available as a download
only very recently!
Bill Ramsay arranged and
led big bands and played in them most of his life. The band in
this 1961 Roy Theater Concert includes Corky Corcoran, Bill
Hobarth, Dick Palombi, Bill Richardson and Dave Tuttle among
others.
Ramsay even makes a
humorous introduction of Corky on 'Prelude to a Kiss' (at 8:45
on the track) as someone 'just starting out, in his first
professional job' (an ironic jest, knowing of Corky's 20 + years
of top-level big band experience). [Read
more about Bill Ramsay here]
Corky died of cancer at
only 55 years of age in Tacoma, Washington on October 3rd, 1979.
Corky
Corcoran was a prodigious talent, but even though he was a
leading musician with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey (among
other great bands of the era), he is not as well remembered by
the lay public as some of the other leading saxophonists of that
era, such as Charlie Parker, Lester Young, or Coleman
Hawkins (Corky's personal idol). But he deserves to be
better known because both the quality of his sound and the level
of his musicianship were superb, as these tracks will exhibit to
you.
You can
consult an online list of albums to which Corky Corcoran
contributed by visiting the Barnes & Noble web music
catalogue here.
In the
coming weeks we will be adding to this brief biography, and
featuring some audio tracks from Corky's own albums, and other
great artists, on this new web site. Check back soon!
~ Jon
Polless
Acknowledgements:
Eugene Chadbourne, 'All Music Guide' for some source material
Header Photo Credits:
Courtesy of American Memory Project, Library of Congress
Website: Philippe Foubert
The
'Original' Star Dust by The Lionel Hampton All Stars, from the 'Just
Jazz' Concert
