| Don Butterfield | |
| Birth Name: | Don Kiethly Butterfield |
| Birth Date: | 1 April 1923 |
| Death Place: | Cedar Grove, New Jersey, US |
| Origin: | Centralia, Washington, US |
| Instrument: | Tuba |
| Genre: | Jazz, classical |
| Occupation: | Musician |
| Years Active: | 1940s–2005 |
| Label: | Atlantic |
| Associated Acts: | Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jimmy Smith, many others |
Don Kiethly Butterfield (April 1, 1923 – November 27, 2006) was an American jazz and classical tuba player.
Butterfield began to play the tuba in high school. He wanted to play trumpet, but the band director assigned him to tuba instead. He joined the United States Army Air Forces and reached the rank of technician fifth grade. After serving in the U.S. Military from 1942 to 1946, he studied the instrument at the Juilliard School.
Butterfield started his professional career in the late 1940s playing for the CBS and NBC radio networks. He played in orchestras, including the American Symphony, on albums by Jackie Gleason until he became a full time member at the Radio City Music Hall.
In the 1950s, Butterfield switched to jazz, backing such musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jimmy Smith, and Moondog. He led his own sextet for a 1955 album on Atlantic Records and played at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.
In the 1970s, he worked as a session musician. He played on recordings for a variety of artists and on television and film soundtracks, including The Godfather Part II.
The Grove Dictionary of Music calls Butterfield's playing style, "uncommonly florid, a skill that made him of value as a jazz musician... He was one of the first modern jazz players who, rather than simply marking out the bass line, rediscovered the possibility of bringing to the instrument a facility akin to that of a trumpeter."
Butterfield played an 8-foot-long trumpet on the May 21, 1962 episode of the I've Got a Secret television program (season 10, episode 519).video
Butterfield suffered a stroke in 2005, which left him unable to play, and he died in 2006 from a stroke-related illness.
With Cannonball Adderley
With Nat Adderley
With David Amram
With Bob Brookmeyer
With Kenny Burrell
With Donald Byrd
With Teddy Charles
With Jimmy Cleveland
With Bill Evans
With Art Farmer
With Maynard Ferguson
With Dizzy Gillespie
With Urbie Green
With Jimmy Heath
With Roland Kirk
With John Lewis
With Arif Mardin
With Gil Mellé
With Charles Mingus
With the Modern Jazz Quartet
With James Moody
With Wes Montgomery
With Lee Morgan
With Oliver Nelson
With Oscar Peterson
With Sonny Rollins
With Lalo Schifrin
With Jimmy Smith
With Billy Taylor
With Clark Terry
With The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra
With Cal Tjader
With Stanley Turrentine