Boyd Albert Raeburn (October 27, 1913 – August 2, 1966)[1] was an American jazz bandleader and bass saxophonist.
He was born in Faith, South Dakota, United States.[1] Raeburn attended the University of Chicago, where he led a campus band.[1] He gained his earliest experience as a commercial bandleader at Chicago's World Fair (1933–1934).[2] For the rest of the decade, he worked in dance bands, sometimes leading them.[3]
In the next decade, the group passed through swing before becoming identified with the bop school.[2] His later big band, which was active c. 1944-1947, performed arrangements that were often comparable to those used by Woody Herman and the "progressive jazz" of Stan Kenton during the same period.[3] The compositions arranged by George Handy were the most contemporary, utilizing dissonance somewhat in the manner of Igor Stravinsky.[citation needed] Johnny Richards joined in 1947, following Handy and stayed for a year writing 50 compositions.[3]
Raeburn's second wife was the singer Ginny Powell, for whom he wrote "Rip Van Winkle". The couple married in 1946,[2] had two children.[4] As well as singing with her husband's group, Powell also sang with Harry James and Gene Krupa.[4] Raeburn left music in the mid-1950s.[3] Powell died in Nassau in the Bahamas in 1959 from meningitis; the couple had moved there.[4] He settled in New Orleans and ran a furniture store.[5]
Raeburn died from a heart attack in 1966 in Lafayette, Louisiana, aged 52.[1] Boyd Raeburn's first wife was Lorraine Anderson, with whom he had one child; the union ended in divorce. His son with Powell, Bruce Boyd Raeburn[4] of New Orleans, was the curator of the William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz at the Tulane University in New Orleans until December 2017.[4]
Media related to Boyd Raeburn at Wikimedia Commons