Global InformationMarky Markowitz information
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Irvin "Marky" Markowitz (aka Irwin Markowitz, Irving Markowitz; December 11, 1923 - November 18, 1986) was an American jazz trumpeter.
Born the youngest of seven children of Russian-Jewish immigrants who disembarked in Baltimore, and settled on 4 1/2 Street, Southwest, in Washington, D.C., Markowitz learned the trumpet at the local Police Boys' Club. He played early in his career in a number of big bands, including those of Charlie Spivak (1941–42), Jimmy Dorsey, Boyd Raeburn, and Woody Herman (1946). He played in Buddy Rich's orchestra in 1946–47, then returned to service under Herman in 1947–48. Moving his family from Washington, D.C. to New York in 1958, and eventually settling in Nyack, he worked primarily as a studio musician in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Some live appearances included work with Herman, Gene Krupa (1958), Lee Konitz (1959), Ralph Burns, George Russell, Al Cohn (1962), Paul Desmond (1969), and Bill Evans (1974). Marky was a "first call" trumpeter for many top artists of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, the Young Rascals, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Maynard Ferguson, George Segal, and many others, as well as hundreds of advertising "jingles", TV ads and movie scores. He was a perennial on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, and known for a "sweet" tone on the trumpet and flugelhorn, as well as a better-than-average vocal impression of Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, which was featured on a 1970s TV commercial for Hecker's Flour. In January 1985, just the year before his death at age 62, Marky returned to his hometown of Washington, D.C. to perform with an All-Star band, led by famed composer/arranger Nelson Riddle, at the Inaugural Ball for President Ronald Reagan's 2nd term. He led only one recording session, for Harry Lim's Famous Door label in 1976.
