Trombonist Bill Porter has played with bands led by Stan Kenton, Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Jr., and Woody Herman. He’s also led a big band featuring such jazz greats as Maynard Ferguson and Mel Torme. And he’s the only living member of the “Bozo’s Circus” band, which performed on WGN-TV.
Fifty years after he first picked up a trombone Porter is still playing, including monthly with the Bill Porter Orchestra at Live@210 in Highwood. The next set is scheduled for June 6.
“We’re trying to keep the big band sound alive,” Porter said, referring to Glenn Miller and other band leaders of his time.
Those who come to the concert will hear the old standards by a band consisting of three trumpets, three trombones, five saxophones, piano, bass and drums. “It’s a real band,” Porter said.
“We play for dancing and listening. Listening and dancing. That covers it all.”
Folks can dance the waltz, fox trot, or other ballroom dance styles or just move to the music, he said. “In The Mood” will almost certainly be performed, as well as ballads such as “Moonlight Serenade.”
Porter grew up in Chicago playing trombone at Marshall High School — he chose that instrument because he loved the tone, just like someone loves a particular tone a singer has, he said.
He then played with the Air Force Band — and after that auditioned for Stan Kenton’s band and toured for a year and a half. “It was wonderful. We went from town to town playing music — and jazz — which is rare in this country,” he said.
“Stan Kenton (band) was the best band in the world. He was admired all over the world.” Porter spent about 12 years with Woody Herman’s band and then performed with Frank Sinatra and Frank Sinatra Jr.
He also organized his own orchestra, leading bands at the Moulin Rouge Supper Club in the Fairmont Hotel, and served as musical director at the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, Ind. until it closed last December.
Porter said what he likes about the old jazz standards is that “it’s happy music. What we have today is not happy music. It’s angry music.”
When a younger crowd listens to his band in Highwood, “they love it. They don’t get a chance to hear it.” His band also performed at a middle school in Florida. “All the kids were all up on top of the chairs screaming,” he said. “They loved it.”
“Jazz will always be around,” but it will never again be the mainstream music it once was, Porter said.
More Top Picks Mesh Wifis
Bill Porter Orchestra
When: 7 p.m. June 6
Where: Live@210, 210 Green Bay Road, Highwood
Tickets: $10
Information: 847-433-0304; 210live.com/music-calendar/