Print Shortlink

Findley, Chuck (13th December 1947 – Present)

Flugelhorn player, trombonist and trumpeter, born Charles B. Findley in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and first picked up the trumpet at age four.  By the time he was twelve years old, he was playing both trumpet and trombone.

He attended the Cleveland Institute of Music on a scholarship and soon thereafter went on tour with the Jimmy Dorsey Big Band.  A stint with the Buddy Rich Band led to a worldwide tour, including Asia, Europe, and the U.S.

In 1969, he settled down in L.A. and soon found himself in demand as a session musician, sometimes working alongside his brother the session trumpeter Bob Findley.  A couple of his early, instantly recognizable trumpet solos were on B.J. Thomas’s “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and The Carpenters’ “Close to You”.  Early recordings include The Partridge Family’s Bulletin Board and Lydia Pense’s Cold Blood.

Things really took off for him in 1975, with appearances on George Harrison’s Extra Texture (Read All About It), Tom Scott’s New York Connection, and Feeling Free by The Singers Unlimited.  In 1976, he re-united with The Singers Unlimited on A Special Blend, and helped add to the blend on Ned Doheny’s Hard Candy, Boz Scaggs’ Silk Degrees, and The Royal Scam by Steely Dan.  The following year, he joined Steely Dan on Aja, and played flugelhorn and trumpet on Sonny Criss’s Warm & Sonny and Loving is Why by Sons of Champlin.  In 1978, he made the cut on Carole King:  Her Greatest Hits.

The turn of the decade saw him hooking up with Ned Doheny on Prone, Elton John on 21 at 33, and Barry Manilow on his self-titled album, Barry.  In 1981, he re-joined The Singers Unlimited on Easy to Love and played trumpet on Quincy Jones’ The DudeThe Dude featured Chuck on a pair of James Ingram hits, “Just Once” and “One Hundred Ways”.  He helped form the Hoops McCann Band in 1982 and one of their specialties was, appropriately, doing covers of Steely Dan songs.  In 1983, Chuck teamed up with Bobby Shew on Trumpets No End.  He also took part in a joint effort, The Knee Plays, with David Byrne, and created Precious Moments with Jermaine Jackson.  In 1989, he became a member of The Tonight Show band.

He was one of the only musicians, if not the only one, to be kept on when Johnny Carson handed off the reins to Jay Leno in 1994.  In the interim, he found time to join the brass section on Madonna’s 1990 album, Like a Prayer, and Miles Davis and Michel Legrand on the soundtrack of the 1991 film, Dingo.  In 1992, he appeared on The Manhattan Transfer’sAnthology:  Down in Birdland, Joni Mitchell’s CD release of Court and Spark, and found time to participate in the spring jazz lecture series at the University of North Texas.  While playing on the new version of The Tonight Show, he re-united with Doc Severinsen on 1995’s Doc and the Dawgs and 1999’s Swingin’ the Blues.  In between he appeared on a pair of Al Jarreau CDs, High Crime and Jarreau.

The turn of the millennium found him on another Joni Mitchell CD, Hejira, and Michael Davis’s Brass Nation.  In 2004, he collaborated with Michael again on the self-explanatory Trumpets Eleven, performed at the Democratic National Convention, held in Boston, Massachusetts, and went on a European tour with James Last.  He has also been active with the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, which boasts his name on an award for best lead-trumpet performance, as a performer and clinician.  Latter-day CD releases include Sergio Mendes’s Magic Lady, Emil Richards’ and the Joe Porcoro Allstar Big Band’s Odd Men In, and Robin Thicke’s Something Else.

Other artists and groups he has worked with include George Benson, Joe Cocker, PaulinhoDaCosta, Neil Diamond , The Emotions, Julio Iglesias, Rickie Lee Jones, Megadeth, Randy Newman, Robert Palmer, Diana Ross , Rod Stewart, Toto, Sarah Vaughan, and Dionne Warwick.  In April 2008, he performed at the Chandler Jazz Festival with the Jack Radavich Trio.  He has also played in the pit band at the Oscars and has been involved at various times with the Alf Clausen Jazz Orchestra and the Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.

Here he is performing a solo on “Nature Boy” with the James Last Orchestra….

Sources:

  1. http://www.calicchio.com/playerDetails.cfm?pid=3
  2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Findley
  3. http://www.cmongethappy.com/aguide/bullrev.html
  4. http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/artist/Pense,+Lydia/a/Lydia+Pense.htm
  5. http://www.jpgr.co.uk/pas10009.html
  6. http://www.powersalad.com/singersunlimited/sudiscog.htm
  7. http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~takeito/doheny.html
  8. http://artist.ebay.com/Tom-Scott_music_W0QQcZ1376071788QQpgZ7
  9. http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/7267044/a/Silk+Degrees.htm
  10. http://www.steelydan.com/citizentracks.html
  11. http://reader.feedshow.com/show_items-feed=027e1ea549c692d2a46e21d3e5ee8d32
  12. http://www.chicagohome.de/Chicagoboard1/Sons.html
  13. http://www.caroleking.com/index.php?p=discography&subp=ckalbums_detail&id=289
  14. http://www.barrynethomepage.com/bn22_barry.html
  15. http://www.discogs.com/sell/item/6935584
  16. http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/7hoops.htm
  17. http://www.answers.com/topic/trumpets-no-end
  18. http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/the-knee-plays
  19. http://www2c.airnet.ne.jp/stevie/JERMAINE%20JACKSON/JERMAINE%20JACKSON.html
  20. http://madonna.reinventionforum.forumcommunity.net/?t=6914014
  21. http://www.discogs.com/release/54774
  22. http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/Diner/2674/markowitz_roy_a.htm
  23. http://www.jazz.unt.edu/?q=node/43
  24. http://artist.ebay.co.uk/Al-Jarreau_music_W0QQcZ1272115971
  25. http://www.jenniferleitham.com/discography.htm
  26. http://artist.ebay.com/Tom-Scott_music_W0QQcZ1376071788QQpgZ9
  27. http://artist.ebay.ca/Tom-Scott_music_W0QQcZ1376071788
  28. http://www.garciamusic.com/educator/articles/mike.davis.html
  29. http://www.calicchio.com/main.cfm?id=10
  30. http://www.tower.com/sergio-mendes-magic-lady-cd/wapi/106086555
  31. http://www.itrax.com/Pages/AlbumDetails.php?aID=AL_197200583645ee0e4da7eb8
  32. http://theneptunes.org/robin-thicke-something-else-2008/
  33. http://www.chandleraz.gov/newsrelease.aspx?N_UID=1107
  34. http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2008/jul/christchurch/miles-ahead
  35. http://www.tijuanabrass.com/herb-alpert-faq/
  36. http://alfclausen.com/album_details.aspx?albumID=284&artistID=56
  37. http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,430410,00.html?src=redirsearch%2526artist=Chuck%2bFindley
  38. http://www.principaltrumpet.com/shopping_cart/catalog.php?cat=cd
  39. http://www.lastudiomusicians.net/jerryheytributepage2.htm
  40. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=559
  41. http://ml.islandnet.com/pipermail/dixielandjazz/2006-August/039347.html