Cutty Cutshall
b. Robert Dewees Cutshall, 29 December 1911, Huntington County, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 16 August 1968 After working with several bands in and around Pittsburgh, trombonist Cutshall worked with Charley Dornberger and Jan Savitt before joining Benny Goodman in 1940. Together with Lou McGarity, Cutshall helped give the Goodman band a remarkably solid sound achieved by bands with larger trombone sections. After war service, Cutshall again played with Goodman but with the sudden decrease in the number of name bands he began working more with smaller units, especially those performing at Nick's in New York. It was here that he established a long-lasting association with Eddie Condon. For two decades Cutshall played at Nick's and Condon's own club, then occasionally touring with like-minded musicians. He was involved with Yank Lawson and his old partner McGarity, in a series of bands labelled the Greats Of Jazz which would eventually metamorphose into the World's Greatest Jazz Band. Before this happened, however, Cutshall died on 16 August 1968.