January 9, 1917-July 20, 2002
Who was Jimmy Maxwell? Jimmy Maxwell was one of the greatest lead trumpeters in jazz. He grew up in Stockton, California, alongside Gil Evans who put together his first band in 1933, and Maxwell worked in Evans' bands of the Thirties. His first name band was lead by Jimmmy Dorsey (1936-37), Joining Goodman for the first time in 1939. He stayed until 1943, sitting next to fellow giants Billy Butterfield and Cootie Williams in the Goodman trumpet section.
Based in New York, Maxwell joined the CBS staff orchestra in 1943 and stayed there for 2 years. Then he moved to the Perry Como Show in 1945 and played in the band their for 20 years. He also worked in the NBC and made innumerable recordings. Among the big bands he worked with were those led by Quincy Jones, Gerry Mulligan, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Oliver Nelson.
Amid all this, Maxwell became a mainstay at the NBC studios for 14 years from 1960. When he left the studios, he taught privately and produced a tutorial manual for lead trumpet players, The First Trumpeter.
It was while he was at NBC that Goodman approached Maxwell to be one of the star musicians in his band for Goodman's upcoming tour of Russia. Goodman suggested that Maxwell's son, David (now President of Drake Univesity), could travel as the band boy and showed him the duties involved in setting up music stands and so on. Maxwell relented and agreed to travel.
Maxwell played solo trumpet on the soundtrack of the 1972 film The Godfather and made many film appearences with the various bands in which he worked.
He was every Trumpet players idealand probably summed himself up in an incident when he was leading a trumpet section in a recording session. One of the trumpeters had a question about phrasing a certain passage, "how are you going to play this? " Maxwell smiled comfortably at the man "beautifully" he said.
Jimmy Maxwell was the father of Drake President Dr. David Maxwell, who is needless to say a supporter and fan of the Drake Music Department and its ensembles.
