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George Roberts

George began his career with Ray Robbins Band before joining Gene Krupa in 1947, where he was in the same section with Urbie Green. It was Urbie's lyric tenor trombone playing that inspired George to be an Urbie, one octave lower.

Roberts replaced Bart Varsalona in the Stan Kenton Orchestra from 1950 until 1953. Lee Gillette, executive at Capitol Records, introduced George who was then a freelance session musician in Los Angeles to Nelson Riddle. George soon launched a successful studio recording career with Riddle, Don Costa, Billy May, Axel Stordahl, Gordon Jenkins. Roberts was active on sessions with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole.

As a Hollywood studio musician, he worked on numerous film scores with all the major studios such as Jaws, King Kong, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. For years was on staff orchestras for television networks, regular on The Carol Burnett Show, Dinah Shore Show, Academy Awards. He eventually appeared on over 6000 recordings before retiring. He was affectionately refereed to as Mr. Bass Trombone.

Gear

Kanstul Single Trigger 62H Bass Trombone. Uses a oversized Kanstul GR mouthpiece curently after playing for years with the Herrick 1.5G.


Tags

Jennifer Wharton
trombone, bass
Nate Petersen
trombone, bass

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