ASHLEY ALEXANDER

ASHLEY ALEXANDER BIG BAND 

 Plays Frank Mantooth 

Ashley Alexander, Big Band trombonist, music educator and recording artist

In August 1988, trombonist and educator Ashley Alexander went for a walk in the woods at a jazz camp in Saskatchewan, Canada and never returned. When camp officials searched for him, they found Alexander's body nearby. The 52-year-old music professor at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. reportedly had a history of heart trouble.

While in Los Angeles seven years earlier, Alexander and his big band recorded Secret Love for AM-PM Records, a venture of producer Albert Marx's. The album remains a document of how top clinic bands of the period sounded and it captures a lost light at the top of his game. Alexander was probably most famous for playing the double trombone—one valve, two slides and bells—which the Holton Company designed for him.

Born in Oklahoma, Alexander's father played organ in the local church and jazz piano on Saturday nights. Alexander picked up the trombone in school and played in Western swing bands in his teens, even working ofr a year in band of the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

After graduating from college, Alexander worked in the big bands of Teddy Phillips, Ralph Marteri, Tex Beneke and Glenn Miller. He soon began teaching high school in Oklahoma and then enrolled at North Texas State for an advanced degree in trombone performance.

Frank Mantooth (April 11, 1947, Tulsa, Oklahoma – January 30, 2004, Garden City, Kansas) was an American jazz pianist and arranger.

Mantooth attended University of North Texas College of Music, graduating in 1969, then played in and arranged for the Air Force Academy Falconaires from 1969 to 1973. He spent the rest of the 1970s living in Austria, where he published big band and small ensemble arrangements.

After his return to the U.S. in 1980, Mantooth worked extensively as a pedagogue, arranger, and publisher in addition to performance. He taught at DePaul University and recorded with Phil Wilson, Ashley Alexander, and Kirsten Gustafson. He wrote music for Louie Bellson, Art Farmer, and Carla Helmbrecht among others. He died in 2004 from a heart attack at his home in Garden City, Kansas, aged 56.

After graduation, Alexander took a job as a jazz instructor at the University of Northern Iowa and soon joined the National Stage Band Camps, where he eventually became its director.

Jim Linahon, John Harbaugh, Tom Gause, David Alexander, John Thomas (tp) Bill Yeager, Charles Stolfus, Jeff Tower, Lee Gause (tb) Ashley Alexander (tb,ldr) Matt Catingub, Keith Squires, Gordon Goodwin, Matt Datillo, Dan Barilone (saxes) Frank Mantooth (p) Les Johnson (g) Bob Bowman (b) Nick Ceroli (d) Tony Villa, Mark Villa (perc)