Billy Butterfield was a band leader, jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and cornetist.

He studied cornet with Frank Simons, but later switched to studying medicine. He did not give up on music and quit medicine after finding success as a trumpeter. Early in his career he played in the band of Austin Wylie

Austin Wylie

Austin Wylie was an American jazz bandleader.Wylie led a dance band in the 1920s and early 1930s which operated as a territory band based out of Cleveland, Ohio, though he also broadcast on national radio. The band was sometimes billed as the Golden Pheasant Orchestra...

. He gained attention working with Bob Crosby

Bob Crosby

George Robert "Bob" Crosby was an American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group the Bob-Cats.-Family:...

 (1937–1940), and later worked with Artie Shaw

Artie Shaw

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....

, Les Brown

Les Brown (bandleader)

Les Brown, Sr. and the Band of Renown are a big band that began in the late 1930s, initially as the group Les Brown and His Blue Devils that Brown led while a student at Duke University. He was the first president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences...

, and Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

. On October 7, 1940, during his brief stay with Artie Shaw's orchestra, he performed what has been described as a "legendary trumpet solo" on the hit song "Stardust

Stardust (song)

"Stardust" is an American popular song composed in 1927 by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics added in 1929 by Mitchell Parish. Originally titled "Star Dust", Carmichael first recorded the song at the Gennett Records studio in Richmond, Indiana...

." Between 1943 and 1947, taking a break to serve in Uncle Sam's army, Billy led his own orchestra. On September 20, 1944, Capitol

Capitol Records

Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

 recorded the jazz standard

Jazz standard

Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...

 "Moonlight In Vermont

Moonlight in Vermont (song)

"Moonlight in Vermont" is a popular song about the U.S. state of Vermont, written by John Blackburn and Karl Suessdorf and published in 1943. The lyrics are unusual in that they do not rhyme...

", which featured a vocal by Margaret Whiting

Margaret Whiting

Margaret Whiting was a singer of American popular music and country music who first made her reputation during the 1940s and 1950s.-Youth:...

 and a trumpet solo by Billy. The liner notes from the CD Capitol From The Vaults, Volume 2, "Vine Street Divas" indicate that, although 'Billy Butterfield & His Orchestra' were credited with the song, it was really the Les Brown band recording under the name of Billy Butterfield because Brown was under contract to another label at the time. He recorded two albums with Ray Conniff

Ray Conniff

Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.-Biography:...

 in the 1950s ("Conniff meets Butterfield") and 1960s ("Just Kiddin' Around"). Later in the 1960s he recorded two albums with his own orchestra for Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

. Billy was a member of the World's Greatest Jazz Band led by Yank Lawson

Yank Lawson

John Rhea "Yank" Lawson was a jazz trumpeter known for Dixieland and swing music....

 and Bob Haggart

Bob Haggart

Robert Sherwood Haggart was a dixieland jazz double bass player, composer and arranger...

from the late 1960s until his death in 1988. He also freelanced as a guest star with many bands all over the world, and performed at many Jazz festivals, including the Manassas Jazz Festival and Dick Gibson's Bash in Colorado.

External links

• Jazz trumpet transcriptions
• [ All Music]