ITF2008 : May 28-31 : Salt Lake City

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Artists

Dick Nash

Dick Nash started playing a brass instrument at the age of 10. His parents died and, since he was very young, he went to a boarding school where he came in contact with brass playing. His first brass instrument was a army bugle and he was told to play the trumpet. Even then he was attracted to the trombone and practiced it secretly. The bandmaster heard him play trombone and said "the trumpet is too small for you, you must play the baritone." During his high school days he switched to the trombone and took lessons from John Coffey of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Dick took classical trombone lessons and played all the repertoire, but his desire was to play dance music, which was very popular in the 40's and 50's. During this period there was a great market for the big bands, ballroom bands and so on. He traveled with Billy May and played in several other bands. In the 50's, the popularity of big bands waned and a lot of great bands disappeared. Dick had problems finding a job as a trombone player (as did a lot of other players at that time.) In 1953, Dick married Barbara and he asked her if she would like to go to Los Angeles for their honeymoon? She said yes! so they packed their bags and left to build a new future. For nearly a year they struggled but a rescue came from Tommy Pederson, who arranged a job for him with one of the local bands. This was his lucky break and his great Los Angeles career began.