Emmanuel "Mannie" Klein (February 4, 1908 – May 31, 1994) was one of the busiest trumpeters of the 1930s, Manny Klein appeared on a countless number of recordings (both in jazz settings and quite anonymously) through the decades.
Klein was a New Yorker who was a pupil of the trumpet guru Max Schlossberg and was later in boy’s bands and the New York Junior Police Band. He was so good so young that from 1928 he was in constant demand as a freelance beginning with Paul Whiteman in 1928 where he took the solo on "Makin' Whoopee" that would normally have been taken by the indisposed Bix Beiderbecke. Klein was on literally hundreds of recordings during the next nine years, playing in a style that was similar to (and often later on mistaken for) Bunny Berigan's. Among the many records that he appeared on were dates led by the Boswell Sisters, the Dorsey Brothers, and Benny Goodman, plus many dance band sessions for Don Voorhees, Red Nichols, Fred Rich, Roger Wolfe Kahn, and others; a complete Manny Klein discography has yet to be assembled.
As mentioned before, Klein studied with Max Schlossberg of the New York Philharmonic and although he did not play first trumpet, he was a member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. In 1953, he appeared on the Capitol Records album Concerto In C Minor For Piano by Dmitri Shostakovich and The Four Temperaments by Paul Hindemith with Victor Aller and Felix Slatkin.
During the early 1960s, Mannie Klein appeared on several Dean Martin recordings. He played piccolo trumpet on Hugo Montenegro's hit version of the main theme to the 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Also that year he toured Japan with Percy Faith's Orchestra.
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J. Audino, M. McNabb, M. Klein |
He finally slowed down in his later years, and by the 1990’s was honoured with the nick-name “GOMOTS” (Grand Old Man Of The Trumpet Section) a fair description, for despite his superlative talents Klein’s solo jazz recordings could be counted on the valves of half a dozen trumpets. He died at age of 86 in Los Angeles on May 31, 1994.
(Edited from various sources mainly Wikipedia & The Rough Guide To Jazz)
As an example of how beautifully Mannie played, here is a recording he made in 1960 with Glen Gray, who was leading a band of Hollywood studio musicians who were alumni of swing era bands in recording tributes to the great musicians of the swing era. This one, a performance of George Gershwin’s “Embraceable You,” was a salute to the wonderful jazz cornetist Bobby Hackett.
Please note the first and last photo on this video is not Mannie Klein but the Austrian Oscar Klein (not related.)
Please note the first and last photo on this video is not Mannie Klein but the Austrian Oscar Klein (not related.)