Happy Birthday, Don Butterfield, April 1, 1923–Nov 27,2006

[Frank Ortega]

Yesterday was Don Butterfield's Birthday. He would be 92 years old.

Many of his students celebrate this day by posting pictures or recordings of Don and telling stories of his influence and character.

I found one of my favorite recordings of him on Youtube. It's from Maynard Ferguson's Screamin' Blues album.

This is Night Train, and Don has the first and last statement of the melody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ufnbX_7SOk" target="_blank

Enjoy!

[roweenie]

Frank,

Thanks for sharing that link. He was a great player, and a great guy, too. The term "one of a kind" gets thrown around a lot, but if there was a definition in the dictionary, his picture would have to be next to it.

Out of curiosity, I wonder if he still has family in the Centralia Wa. area (where Don was from). He left during WW2, and to the best of my knowledge, I don't believe he ever went back there. Maybe some of our Pacific Northwest friends might know.....

I can't believe it's been almost 9 years since he passed away. Tempus fugit......

[Frank Ortega]

That's definitely a question for Brian Nalepka, Bob.
I doubt he's on this forum.

I remember Don Telling two Stories of returning to Centralia.
One was when he was At Juliard and his father had passed away, he said that
Bill Bell paid for his ticket home without Don even asking.
"That's just the kind of man he was." Don said.
And also, he told me that he had donated an old Joe Tarto
King tuba to his old High School, one of the tall ones.
I wonder if that is still there!

[Uncle Markie]

Don and Centralia -

If Don went back to Centralia while he was at Julliard it wasn't for his parents. His mother died in the late 1960s, and I met his father - Gus - who came East for a visit around that time. Don took a drive-across-the-whole-country with his wife and five kids in a VW bus vacation back to Centralia for an extended visit (during the summer) and the constant rainy days drove him nuts. He probably went back when his Dad passed away and that was it.

The horn he donated to his high school was a 1912 Holton CC. Walter Sear owned one of these and the Deprins tubas Walter designed and had made in Belgium were modeled on these horns.

When Don was preparing the Charles Wuorinen (sp?) tuba concerto - I heard this at the 92nd St. Y - Don borrowed Walter's horn (even though he did not like CC tubas) trying find something comfortable to play that piece with. He ended up using his King BBb and his Alex F. I don't think anyone has performed that piece much ever since. Very weird, and honestly it came out differently each of the three times they performed it that night!

I believe Don had a sister who survived him.

I started out subbing for Don and eventually ended up hiring him AND Joe Tarto to play in my own bands!

Back then we all kind of looked out for one another.

Mark Heter