Career
Born in Salina, Kansas, he first started playing swing music with Benny Goodman and Charlie Spivak in the 1940s and 1950s. Working on the West Coast jazz scene, he performed with such musicians as Stan Kenton, Bill Perkins and Maynard Ferguson, among others Other band members were Neal Hefti (trumpet), Herbie Steward (clarinet, tenor saxophone), Jimmy Rowles (piano), Robert "Iggy" Shevak (bass) and Roy "Blinky" Garner (drums).