Music
Sam Donahue
1918–1974 · saxophonist, trumpeter, arranger, bandleader
Detroit-born swing saxophonist and arranger who formed his first band at 15, led Artie Shaw's wartime Navy band and later a Capitol recording orchestra.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Reno, Nevada
aged 56- Birth name
- Samuel Koontz Donahue
- Detroit years
- 1918–1930s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Sam Donahue grew up in Detroit and put together his first dance band there when he was only fifteen, the start of a career as one of the swing era's most respected saxophonist-arrangers. He played in the big bands of Gene Krupa, Harry James and Benny Goodman. During the Second World War he took over the U.S. Navy band that Artie Shaw had built, and jazz writer Marc Myers called it one of the most swinging bands of the war; its V-Discs were sent to troops overseas. After the war he led his own orchestra, which recorded extensively for Capitol with trumpeter Doc Severinsen and singers Frances Wayne and Jo Stafford among its members, until he re-enlisted during the Korean War in 1951. He later worked with Stan Kenton and led a band in which the teenage Frank Sinatra Jr. sang; Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped at Lake Tahoe in 1963 while on tour with it. Donahue died in Reno in 1974.
Highlights
- Formed his first band in Detroit at age 15
- Played with Gene Krupa, Harry James and Benny Goodman
- Led the U.S. Navy band formerly headed by Artie Shaw during World War II
- Led a Capitol recording orchestra after the war
- Frank Sinatra Jr. began as a singer in his band