Don Raffell

Don Raffell
Don Raffell on far right in the Charlie Spivak sax section, 1941
Background information
Birth name	Donald Howard Raffell
Born	(1919-04-26)April 26, 1919 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died	March 24, 2003(2003-03-24) (aged 83) Sherman Oaks, California
Genres	Jazz, big band, swing
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Saxophone, clarinet
Associated acts	The Tonight Show Band, Nelson Riddle, Artie Shaw, Gerald Wilson, Lennon Sisters, Charlie Spivak

Don Raffell (née Donald Howard Raffell; Apr 26, 1919, Washington D.C. – d. Mar 24, 2003, Sherman Oaks, California) was an American saxophonist, woodwind doubler (multireedist), studio musician and educator. Raffell recorded on hundreds of records, movies, and T.V shows dating from the 1940s all the way through the 1990s. His career as a studio musician was long and stylistically diverse having started in the big band era and playing all the way up through rock n' roll and other modern pop era acts. He had a long time close professional association with arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle.

Don Raffell was born and raised in a musical family in Washington D.C. where both he and his brother took up musical instruments. He learned the clarinet and then moved onto the saxophone and flute, he learned to play trumpet and flugelhorn also. Early on his greatest influence on the saxophone was Lester Young and then later Stan Getz.

Raffell got his first start with the Charlie Spivak orchestra in 1940 where he would meet long-time friend and professional colleague, trombonist and arranger Nelson Riddle. During the 1940s and early 1950s Raffell would tour and record extensively with Spivak and then later with the Artie Shaw Orchestra with whom he recorded on several of the bands famous RCA recordings. He would move to Los Angeles in the mid-1940s after the Spivak band had made an appearance on the 1944 Betty Grable movie Pin Up Girl. Raffell also toured and recorded with numerous other big bands/acts of the time to include Benny Goodman, Sonny Burke, Johnny Burke, Charlie Barnet, Louis Armstrong, Ray Conniff, and Mel Torme. His tenure with the Burke Orchestra was the one of the most positive for him of any of the touring bands from that era. Raffell eventually settled in the city of Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles County near the studio music scene of Burbank and Hollywood.