| Buddy Childers | |
| Birth Name: | Marion Childers |
| Birth Date: | 12 February 1926 |
| Birth Place: | Belleville, Illinois, United States |
| Death Place: | Woodland Hills, California, United States |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Occupation: | Musician, composer |
| Instrument: | Trumpet |
| Label: | Candid Records |
Marion "Buddy" Childers (February 12, 1926 – May 24, 2007) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and ensemble leader. Childers became famous in 1942 at the age of 16, when Stan Kenton hired him to be the lead trumpet in his band.
As Childers later told Steve Voce:
At the rehearsal he sat me down in the first trumpet chair, had the first trumpet player sit out. I played about eight or nine things in a row and the adrenalin was really flying that day. I was 16 I probably looked about 13, but I played considerably more maturely than that. 'Well, what do you want to do?' he said after that was over. 'I want to join your band.' 'But you're so young.' 'I gotta join your band,' I said. I had this thing in my mind that I had to join a name band at 16 or I'd never be able to make it as a musician. I was thinking of Harry James so young with Ben Pollack and then with Benny Goodman, and Corky Corcoran who joined Sonny Dunham when he was 16 and then became Harry James's leading soloist the next year. So I made it by three weeks. I only had a couple of months before I graduated but I wasn't interested in that, I was only interested in playing.[1]Childers worked with Kenton for years, and also performed with the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Les Brown, Charlie Barnet,[2] Dan Terry,[3] and others. He worked on television programs and in films, and put together a big band that recorded for Candid Records in the 1980s and 1990s. AllMusic.com also credits Childers as recording with The Monkees, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Captain & Tennille, The Carpenters, Tommy Sands, The Friends of Distinction, Barry Manilow, Tim Weisberg, Michael Nesmith, Laura Nyro, Teresa Brewer, The Four Freshmen, The Singers Unlimited, Billy Daniels, Anita O'Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan. June Christy, Martha Tilton, Frances Faye, Chris Connor, Billy Eckstine, Judith Durham, Randy Crawford, Lena Horne, Patti Page, Peggy Lee, Tierney Sutton, Mel Tormé, Ray Charles & Cleo Laine, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, André Previn, Harvey Mandel, Jack Nimitz, Carl Fontana, Stanley Clarke, Maynard Ferguson, Shorty Rogers, Leith Stevens, Art Pepper, Buddy Rich, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Pete Rugolo, Marty Paich, Johnny Richards, Don Fagerquist, David Axelrod, Bob Thiele, Russell Garcia, Stan Getz, Quincy Jones, Mike Barone, Jimmy Smith, Oscar Peterson, Bob Curnow, Tommy Vig, Bob Florence, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Oliver Nelson. Blue Mitchell, Michel Colombier, Lalo Schifrin, Ray Brown, Clare Fischer, Bobby Bryant, Henry Mancini, Bud Shank, and others.[4]
Childers became a member of the Baháʼí Faith by 1982.[5] He died of cancer on May 24, 2007, age 81.[6]
With the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band
With Gene Ammons
With Elmer Bernstein
With Maynard Ferguson
With Clare Fischer
With Milt Jackson
With Quincy Jones
With Stan Kenton
With Carmen McRae
With Oliver Nelson
With Shorty Rogers
With Pete Rugolo
With Lalo Schifrin