Ray Willis Nance (December 10, 1913 – January 28, 1976) was a jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer. He is best remembered for his long association with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. He performed on over 200 recordings, mostly with the Ellington band. However, he lends fire and grace to the recording efforts of fellow band members Paul Gonsalvez and Johnny Hodges and singers Ella Fitzgerald and Rosemary Clooney.
He had started as a violinist in Chicago, where he was born. In high school, he taught himself trumpet because “I wanted to hear myself on a louder instrument in way I couldn't do with a violin in an orchestra.” He also became a drum major In the high‐school band, where, twirling a baton and doing fancy steps, he learned the fundamentals of the eccentric dancing he later did as a member of the Ellington band.
Singing was added to his repertory when he formed his own six‐piece band at Dave's Cafe on Chicago's South Side, from 1932 to 1937, where the members of the band sang in four‐and five‐part harmony. When Mr. Nance's band broke up in 1937, the jazzman joined Earl Hines's band at the Grand Terrace. Two years later he switched to Horace Henderson's band at Swingland, but when the Henderson band went on the road Mr. Nance stayed behind to work at Joe Hughes's club as a single in the floor show, where his instrumental work was secondary to his singing and dancing.
Ellington hired Nance to replace trumpeter Cootie Williams, who had joined Benny Goodman, in 1940. Nance's first recorded performance with Ellington was at the Fargo, North Dakota ballroom dance. Shortly after joining the band, Nance was given the trumpet solo on the earliest recorded version of "Take the "A" Train", which became the Ellington theme. Nance's "A Train" solo is one of the most copied and admired trumpet solos in jazz history. Indeed, when Cootie Williams returned to the band more than twenty years later, he would play Nance's solo on "A Train" almost exactly as the original.
Nance was often featured on violin and was the only violin soloist ever featured in Ellington's orchestra (especially noteworthy is his violin contribution to the original 1942 version of "The 'C' Jam Blues"). Ellington took care to feature him on many of the band’s numbers. Particularly outstanding are his contributions to “Moon Mist,” “Come Sunday,” and “Black, Brown and Beige”.
He is also one of the better known male vocalists associated with Ellington. On later recordings of "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)", Nance took the previously instrumental horn riff into the lead vocal, which constitute the line "Doo wha, doo wha, doo wha, doo wha, yeah!" He was often featured as vocalist on "Jump for Joy,""Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin'" and "Just Squeeze Me (But Please Don't Tease Me)". His multiple talents (trumpet, violin, vocals and also dancing) earned him the nickname "Floorshow"
Nance was absent from the Duke Ellington Orchestra for around 3–4 months in 1946, including the date of that year's Carnegie Hall concert. In 1949, Ray showed up, along with Ellington sidemen Russell Procope, Johnny Hodges and Sonny Greer on several Ivory Joe Hunter sessions for King Records of Cincinnati. Nance made a few recordings as a bandleader, and also recorded or performed with Earl Hines, Rosemary Clooney, Jaki Byard, Chico Hamilton and others
He left Ellington in 1963 during their Middle East tour after having played alongside his returned predecessor Cootie Williams for a year. He settled in New York. He played at the World's Fair for two seasons and appeared frequently in local clubs and concerts either as a sideman or as leader or small groups of his own. He continued to make several guest appearances in the orchestra over the years and later toured and recorded in England in 1974. Although he had been ill, off and on, for several years, he had continued to perform until the beginning of January 1976. Later that month he died on the 28th at his home in New York City, USA. He was 62 years old.
(Edited from Wikipedia & new York Times)
Here’s a clip of Ray Nance who stars on “Just Squeeze Me” and “It Don’t Mean A Thing” with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at a 1958 concert in Italy.