Earle Spencer

Earle R. Spencer (born 1926) was an American trombonist and leader of a progressive swing big band bearing his name — Earle Spencer and His Orchestra. He formed the band in 1946 and disbanded in 1949. The band recorded for Black & White Records — a label so named by its founder, Les Schreiber, to reflect the races of its recording artists.

Spencer was a trombonist who, after playing in the band that he led from 1946 to 1949, gave up playing entirely, due partly to a heart murmur, due partly to the hard economics of big bands in that began in the late 1940s, and due partly to the band's record label, Black & White Records, which went out of business in October 1949.

Towards the end of World War II, a conscious movement towards the creation of a new style of big band jazz became apparent on America's west coast. The longest established of these self-styled "progressives" was Stan Kenton; then came Boyd Raeburn, and finally Earle Spencer.

In 1946, Spencer formed his band in Los Angeles after being discharged from the U.S. Navy. Its compositions were progressively styled in the spirit of Stan Kenton, Johnny Richards, and Boyd Raeburn. High-note trumpeter Al Killian, trombonist Tommy Pederson, tenorman Lucky Thompson, trumpeter Buddy Childers and altoist Art Pepper, were among the notable members. Spencer apparently dropped out of music altogether by the end of 1949 – when he was still just 23 – and nothing much has been heard from him since.

When Kenton was in his Artistry in Rhythm phase, Earle Spencer was running a roadshow version of the same thing. The evidence is on Concert in Jazz, Tops 1532, dimmed by relatively inadequate recording.

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