Don Rader

An excellent straight-ahead bop soloist, Don Rader is a perfect example of a jazz musician who would have been much more famous had he lived in New York during much of his career. Rader started playing trumpet when he was five (his father was his first teacher) and was always technically skilled. After attending Sam Houston State Teachers College and serving in the Army, he played and wrote arrangements for the big bands of Woody Herman (1959-1961), Maynard Ferguson (1961-1963), and Count Basie (1963-1964). Rader had shorter stints with Louie Bellson, Harry James, Terry Gibbs,...