Bunny Berigan

Bunny Berigan blazed across the jazz sky of the 1930s like a comet—incandescent, unforgettable, and gone too soon. Emerging from the Wisconsin dance bands, his pure, powerful tone and fluid, inventive solos quickly made him the most in-demand trumpet sideman in New York. He lit up recordings for the era's biggest names: Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Billie Holiday, his horn adding a layer of majestic blues to every arrangement. In 1937, he stepped out front, forming his own big band. That same year, he recorded his masterpiece, 'I Can't Get Started,' where his vocal is almost an afterthought to the soaring, melancholic trumpet solo that defines the song. The record was a smash, but leading a band exposed his profound struggles with alcohol. Despite flashes of musical glory, his orchestra was financially unstable, and his health deteriorated rapidly. The man who could play with such heroic clarity was, in the words of a colleague, 'the world's worst businessman and his own worst enemy.' He died from cirrhosis at 33, leaving behind a legacy of recordings that capture the breathtaking height of his talent and the profound depth of his tragedy.