Solid!

Born

• November 12, 1917
• New York, NY

Theme Songs

• Night Is Gone (early)
• Nice People (later)

Henry Jerome

Trumpeter Henry Jerome formed his first orchestra in the mid-1930s. The ten-piece outfit received some notoriety via remote broadcasts on ABC from the Green Room at the Edison Hotel. Early vocalists were David Allen and Frank Warren. Though barely adequate musically Henry Jerome and His Stepping Tones found steady work on the hotel ballroom circuit during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Kay Carlton was vocalist.

Jerome completely reorganized in 1944, modernizing his sound. His new lineup featured bop arrangements, courtesy of Johnny Mandel, which were surprisingly ahead of their time. Of note in Jerome's later line-up was future Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan on bass clarinet and future Nixon-administration White House Counsel Leonard Garment on saxophone. It was this association from Jerome's band that made the two men friends and eventually caused Garment to recommend Greenspan for the job of Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Nixon later named Greenspan to his current job.

Though Jerome's new sound excited critics it proved too noncommercial, and he disbanded in the late 1940s, becoming musical director at Decca. While there he released a series of popular orchestrated albums called ''Brazen Brass.'' In 1959 he took the position of A&R director at Coral Records, where he worked with a number of early rock and roll groups, including the Rock and Roll Trio and Lenny Dell and the Demensions. During the 1960s Jerome recorded an album on the United Artists label. Jerome also composed the theme songs to two popular television programs, The Soupy Sales Show and Winky-Dink and You.