Donahue, Sam(uel) (Koontz)
Donahue, Sam(uel) (Koontz)
Donahue, Sam(uel) (Koontz), tenor saxophonist, leader, trumpeter, arranger; b. Detroit, Mich., March 18, 1918; d. Reno, Nev, March 22, 1974. He began on clarinet at age nine and later played in the Redford H.S. Band. After playing local jobs in Mich., he led his own band. He was with Gene Krupa (1938–40), briefly with Harry James and Benny Goodman (October 1940), and then led his own band prior to joining the U.S. Navy in 1942. He led a navy big band that played in Europe during World War II and recorded. He led his own band from 1946, which had a dozen hits in the late 1940s; during this time he also taught until re-entering the U.S. Navy for several months in 1952. He played with Tommy Dorsey, then fronted Billy May’s orch. for the Ray Anthony organization on tour in 1956. He led his own band in the late 1950s, worked with Stan Kenton from 1960–61, and then fronted Tommy Dorsey’s “Memorial” Band from 1961 to 1965, when they stopped using Dorsey’s name. A year later the group was cut down to an octet (and eventually became the Frank Sinatra Jr. show band). In the late 1960s he led his own band and became musical director for N.Y’s Playboy Club; then in 1969 led his own band in Reno, Nev., until he was stricken with cancer.
Discography
For Young Moderns in Love (1954).
—Lewis Porter