Findley, Bob

Trumpeter who was jamming with the likes of Ornett Coleman and Yusef Lateef while he was still attending high school and who has been teaching clinics in Las Vegas and L.A. since The Beatles conquered America in 1964. Eventually, he made L.A. his home base and embarked on a staggering career as a session musician, recording with big-name artists and working on countless movies and television shows. In 1975, he appeared on Jimmie Spheeris's album, The Dragon Dancing. A year later, he turned up on Stanley Clarke's School Days and helped Neil Diamond make Beautiful Noise. In 1979, he appeared on Lamont Dozier's Bittersweet LP and Frank Sinatra's boxed set, Trilogy. Bob has also had the honour of playing in the orchestra pit at the Oscars nearly every year since 1980. In 1981, he appeared on Jaco Pastorius's album, Word of Mouth. A couple of years later, he collaborated with Jose Feliciano on Me Enamore. The '80s and '90s were dotted with more Oscar appearances and a five-year run on the Miss America Pageant. In 1997, he made the cut on Stanley Clarke's anthology, The Bass-ic Collection. In the new millennium, he appeared on a couple of Jose Feliciano CDs, Escenas de Amor and Tu Inmenso Amor, and the Ricardo Peixoto-Claudio Villela collaboration, Inverseuniverse. In 2007, he appeared on yet another Stanley Clarke retrospective, Original Album Classics. Other artists and groups he has worked with include Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Paul Anka, Tony Bennett, Harry Connick, Jr., Sammy Davis, Jr., David Foster, Judy Garland, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Julio Iglesias, Jack Jones, Steve Lawrence, Johnny Mathis, the Glenn Miller Orchestra , Anthony Newley, Sinead O'Connor, Robert Palmer, Rick Springfield, Sarah Vaughan, and Dionne Warwick. He has been extremely active in the film and television studios, working on films such as Breaking Away, Field of Dreams, Oh, God!, The Right Stuff, and Star Trek: Generations, and TV shows such as Cheers, Home Improvement, Jeopardy, M*A*S*H, The Newlywed Game, and The Simpsons. He has also authored a useful instruction book, simply titled Bob Findley on Trumpet/A Method Book. In his copious free time, he donates his time and talent to The International Trumpet Guild, the Maine Jazz Camp, The New York Brass Conference, and The Royal Conservatory of Holland.

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