Jazz Connection Magazine

Chris Griffin, a member of the acclaimed trumpet section in Benny Goodman's orchestra, died on June 18, 2005 at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, CT. He was 89. The cause was melanoma, according to his fiancée, Louise Baranger.

Griffin was a member of what critics called "The Biting Brass" trumpet threesome in Goodman's orchestra, playing alongside Harry James and Ziggy Elman. Duke Ellington once called the three "the greatest trumpet section that ever was."

Griffin played with the orchestra from 1936 to 1939 and performed in the famous 1938 concert in Carnegie Hall. The concert was a critical moment for swing music, because it was the first time the music, popular with youth, played in a hallowed music hall.

Born in Binghamton, N.Y., on Oct. 31, 1915, Griffin learned to play the horn at age 12 and moved to New York City as a teen to become a musician.

After leaving Goodman's orchestra, he went on to play lead trumpet in television orchestras, including the Ed Sullivan Show and the Jackie Gleason Show.

In the final years, he dictated his memoirs, Sitting In With Chris Griffin. His wife, Helen, died in 2000, and he became engaged to Baranger, a jazz trumpeter and arranger.

When just seventeen, Griffin recorded with Charlie Barnett, Billie Holliday, Mildred Bailey, Eddie Sauter, and Toots Camarata. Eddie Sauter, of the famous Sauter/Finnegan duo, and Toots Camarata who recorded many of the legendary brass sections of renown from the golden era of "Big Bands." Griffin joined Benny Goodman's band in 1936. In 1938, the band performed at Carnegie Hall. He also performed in such movies as Hollywood Hotel, The Big Broadcast of 1937 and The Benny Goodman Story.

Children were a natural outcome of this union, (six of them) and in deference to the many offers of a band of his own, (John Hammond, Willard Alexander, etc.) and in the interests of a still larger family, Griffin joined the staff orchestra of CBS. There, he assumed the lead trumpet position that had been vacated by, then musical giant, Bunny Berigan. Griffin's performance gave brilliance to such legendary radio shows as, The Lucky Strike Hit Parade, The Phillip Morris Show, and The Camel Caravan.

Griffin was one of the pioneers of television as he performed with The Ray Bloch Orchestra on The Toast of the Town, which ultimately became The Ed Sullivan Show. Also the shows of Kate Smith, Milton Berle, Patti Page, Eddie Fisher, Gary Moore, (Carol Burnett) Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason. (Where his trumpet obligato on the theme became synonymous amongst musicians and entertainers.)

Griffin is mentioned in the biographies and auto-biographies of: Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Benny Goodman, Harry James.