Clarence Hutchenrider collection

The clarinetist Clarence Hutchenrider was born in Waco, Texas, on June 13, 1908 and died in New York City on August 18, 1991. Hutchenrider began playing after he received a clarinet and lessons for his thirteenth birthday. While still a teenager he began playing with small dance bands around Texas. After playing with the Ross Gorman band for fourteen months he moved to Cleveland, where he briefly played with a band led by the drummer Merle Jacobs before joining the violinist Austin Wylie's group, replacing Artie Shaw. After touring Pennsylvania and Ohio with Wylie, Glen Gray invited Hutchenrider to join the Casa Loma Orchestra, where he became its prime soloist for the next twelve years (he was featured on the band's theme song, "Smoke Rings"). After leaving Casa Loma in 1943, he played with an ABC radio band led by Jimmy Lytell for three years before briefly retiring to recover from a lung illness. Settling in Long Island, he returned to playing engagements in clubs around New York from the early 1950s onward including stints with Walter Davidson in the 1950s; as a leader at the Gaslight Club from 1958-65; and Bill's Gay Nineties from 1966-74. He also performed with bands led by Dick Sudhalter (the New California Ramblers) and Vince Giordano (the New Orleans Nighthawks), and was a featured member of David Ostwald's Gully Low Jazz Band from 1982 until his death.