Don Kiethly Butterfield (April 1, 1923 – November 27, 2006) was an American jazz and classical tuba player.

Biography

Butterfield began to play the tuba in high school. He wanted to play trumpet, but the band director assigned him to tuba instead. He joined the United States Army Air Forces and reached the rank of technician fifth grade. After serving in the U.S. Military from 1942 to 1946, he studied the instrument at the Juilliard School. Butterfield started his professional career in the late 1940s playing for the CBS and NBC radio networks. He played in orchestras, including the American Symphony, on albums by Jackie Gleason until he became a full time member at the Radio City Music Hall. In the 1950s, Butterfield switched to jazz, backing such musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jimmy Smith, and Moondog. He led his own sextet for a 1955 album on Atlantic Records and played at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. In the 1970s, he worked as a session musician. He played on recordings for a variety of artists and on television and film soundtracks, including The Godfather Part II. The Grove Dictionary of Music calls Butterfield's playing style, "uncommonly florid, a skill that made him of value as a jazz musician... He was one of the first modern jazz players who, rather than simply marking out the bass line, rediscovered the possibility of bringing to the instrument a facility akin to that of a trumpeter." Butterfield played an 8-foot-long trumpet on the May 21, 1962 episode of the I've Got a Secret television program (season 10, episode 519).video Butterfield suffered a stroke in 2005, which left him unable to play, and he died in 2006 from a stroke-related illness.

Discography

As sideman

With Cannonball Adderley With Nat Adderley With David Amram With Bob Brookmeyer With Kenny Burrell With Donald Byrd With Teddy Charles With Jimmy Cleveland With Bill Evans With Art Farmer '''With Maynard Ferguson With Dizzy Gillespie With Urbie Green With Jimmy Heath With Roland Kirk With John Lewis With Arif Mardin With Gil Mellé With Charles Mingus With the Modern Jazz Quartet With James Moody With Wes Montgomery With Lee Morgan With Oliver Nelson With Oscar Peterson With Sonny Rollins With Lalo Schifrin With Jimmy Smith With Billy Taylor With Clark Terry With The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra With Cal Tjader With Stanley Turrentine