Charles Raymond “Chuck” Connors

Connors, Chuck [Charles Raymond], (b Maysville, KY, August 18, 1930; d December 11, 1994).

American bass trombonist. He studied at the US Navy School of Music in Washington, DC (1949), and from 1952 at the Boston Conservatory (MusB 1956). From April through December 1957 he worked with Dizzy Gillespie and, after holding jobs outside of music, in July 1961 joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

He recorded with Ellington and with a number of his sidemen: Johnny Hodges (1961), Ray Nance (1963), Cat Anderson (1965), Paul Gonsalves (1969), and Clark Terry (1974); solos by Connors may be heard on I Love to Laugh, on the album Mary Poppins (1964, Rep. 6141), and Perdido, on The Popular Duke Ellington (1966, RCA LSP3576).

He also appeared in numerous films of the group, including the documentaries Duke Ellington and his Orchestra (1968), Mexican Suite(1972), and Memories of Duke (1980).

Following Ellington’s death in 1974 he continued to play with the orchestra under Mercer Ellington. With Terry he toured the USA in 1974 and Europe twice in the late 1970s. Later he recorded with Teresa Brewer (1985), Mercer Ellington (1987), and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, this last in a tribute to Duke Ellington (1991).

The social security death index gives his last known place of residence as Cincinnati.

from Grove Music Online