Bobby Hackett
Robert Leo Bobby Hackett was an American jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet and guitar with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Hackett is probably best known for being the featured soloist on some of the Jackie Gleason mood music albums during the 1950s.
Hackett was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to a family of Irish immigrants. He made his name as a follower of the legendary cornet player Bix Beiderbecke Benny Goodman hired him to recreate Bixs famous Im Coming Virginia solo at his 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. In the late 1930s Hackett played lead trumpet in the Vic Schoen Orchestra which backed the Andrews Sisters. Bobby Hackett can be heard on the soundtrack to the 1940 Fred Astaire movie Second Chorus. In 1939 the talent agency MCA asked Bobby Hackett to form a big band with its backing. Unfortunately the band failed and Hackett was in substantial debt to MCA after it folded. Bobby Hackett joined the bands of Horace Heidt and then Glenn Miller to pay down this debt. To make matters worse, his lip was in bad shape after dental surgery, making it difficult for him to play the trumpet or cornet. Glenn Miller came to Hacketts rescue, offering him a job as a guitarist with the Miller Band. When I joined the band and I was making good
Source: Wikipedia