Bob Zurke

One of the legions of jazz musicians to have lived hard and died young, the Detroit-born Zurke was best known for his stint as pianist with singer Bob Crosby's Bobcats. Zurke spent time with Oliver Naylor's Orchestra in Philadelphia during the late '20s and early '30s; he also recorded with bassist Thelma Terry & Her Playboys in 1928. Around that time, arranger Don Redman hired Zurke (and Glen Gray of the Casa Loma Orchestra) to copy parts for arrangements he'd written for McKinney's Cotton Pickers. Zurke joined the Bobcats late in 1936, and (except for a 1937 hiatus brought o...