Zeke Zarchy
b. Rubin Zarchy, 12 June 1915, New York City, New York, USA. Zarchy began playing trumpet as a child and was playing semi-professionally while still at high school. He first came to note as a member of the excellent dance band led by Joe Haymes. In 1936 he joined Benny Goodman and thereafter played with Artie Shaw, Bob Crosby, Red Norvo and Tommy Dorsey, before joining Glenn Miller in 1940. Zarchy then moved into studio work but appeared on a number of Miller recordings and during World War II played in Miller's army band. He resumed studio work in the post-war years, and also made recording dates with many leading big bands throughout the '50s and '60s. In the early '80s he began making appearances with the Great Pacific Jazz Band (comprised mostly of musicians from the Walt Disney studio orchestra) and also toured Australia and the UK with a Miller reunion band. Zarchy never risked improvising, admitting to interviewer Ralph Gulliver, ‘I would have been scared witless’, but he enjoyed a reputation as being one of the best and most reliable lead trumpeters of the swing era.