Freddy Martin

Genres:	Big Band & Swing • Jazz • Vocals
Descriptive "tags":	40s • jazz • big band • 50s • american • vocal • oldies • lounge • saxophone • ohio • male vocalist • instrumental • easy listening
Decades Active:	1940s • 1950s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s

Biography

9 December 1906, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, d. 30 September 1983. After starting out on drums and C-melody saxophone, Martin switched to playing tenor saxophone. He led his own band while still at high school, then became a sideman in various local bands. After a few years, he began attracting attention for his smooth and competent musicianship. Guy Lombardo and his brothers heard and encouraged him and, in 1931, Martin formed his own band. He took the unit into a succession of engagements at prestigious hotels, including the Roosevelt Grill in New York’s Manhattan Hotel, and was heard on the radio. He made his breakthrough into popular success with an arrangement the theme from the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s B-flat piano concerto.

This was followed by other arrangements of popular classics, usually featuring the band’s current pianist - a role taken by, amongst others, Jack Fina and Barclay Allen. The Tchaikovsky piece was...

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