Trombonist Ralph Hutchinson Passes at 83

Home was in northern England, in a coal-mining town called Newcastle-on-Tyne. He heard the music as a youngster, listening to a battery-powered radio. Later, the trombone became his instrument as he played with bands in Great Britain. In 1948, he took a ship to New York City and first settled in Chicago.

I thought I'd gone as far musically back home as I could go, It seemed as if all of our musical ideas came from this country. This seemed the place to be.
-Hutchinson quoted in “Down Beat" magazine.

He was soon playing with jazz great Muggsy Spanier's band, and then all three network orchestras -- NBC, CBS and ABC. By 1966, he was playing for “The Jackie Gleason Show," renewed week to week for four years until the TV show went off the air.