Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL
Aug 18 2007
Trumpeter was prominent figure in jazz
By MARK ZALOUDEK
BRADE NTON — Trumpeter Leon Merian, who worked with Frank Sinatra,
Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Presley and other notable singers and jazz
bands during a career that spanned more than 60 years, died Wednesday
of complications from diabetes.
The 83-year-old musician capitalized on his Big Band-era roots from
the 1940s as his career moved into recording studios, major network
orchestras, Broadway orchestra pits and nightclubs.
He regularly entertained local audiences as recently as this spring
after moving to Southwest Florida nearly 20 years ago.
"It was truly in his blood," said his son, Leon, of Hingham, Mass.
"The horn was his first love, and as much as he blew into the horn,
it blew life right back into him."
Dizzy Gillespie once described Merian’s horn-playing as "one of the
most beautiful sounds you’ll ever hear."
Merian’s credits include playing on the soundtracks of the
Oscar-winning movies "The Godfather" and "Ben-Hur," performing in
Cole Porter’s Broadway musical "Silk Stockings" starring Rosalind
Russell, and accompanying a galaxy of entertainers while working with
the studio orchestras at ABC, CBS and NBC.
"Leon was a very prominent figure in jazz music very early on and
played with many of the great names," said Morrie Trumble, a board
member of the Jazz Club of Sarasota.
Merian himself marveled at the longevity of his career, which took
root in Boston’s jazz clubs during the Big Band era while he was
still in high school in the late 1930s.
After playing to a packed house at the age of 80 with a jazz ensemble
in Boston, he told a Herald-Tribune reporter: "I’m tellin’ ya, I’ve
played a lot of jazz concerts, but this one took my breath away. My
chops were burnin’. I could do no wrong, man. Every song I played, it
tore the house down."
The 14-piece Leon Merian Big Band and the smaller Leon Merian Quintet
packed Southwest Florida nightclubs, including a weekly gig for more
than a year and a half at the former Bongo’s Bayside Grille & Bar on
Manatee County’s waterfront.
Born in 1923 to Armenian immigrants and raised in Boston’s struggling
Roxbury district, where his father worked in a shoe factory, Vahan
Leon Megerdichian showed an early interest in music.
Early in his career, a record producer persuaded him to legally
shorten his last name to Merian. He had stopped using his first name
as a child to avoid being teased.
In his 2000 autobiography "Leon Merian: The Man Behind the Horn," he
recounted how he fell in love with the trumpet at the age of 10 when
his mother took him to hear the Boston Symphony.
His first trumpet, a Christmas present, led to playing with the
school band. Before long he was sitting in with musicians in local
clubs.
He was one of the first white musicians to play with a black band in
the 1940s when he was hired by Lucky Millinder in 1942 at the age of
19. He experienced racial discrimination as the band toured the
South.
Merian not only loved performing, but also would often mingle with
audience members between sets.
Even toward the end of his career, "the man has lost nothing to time,
still astonishing young players who come to worship, listen and learn
at his performances," a Herald-Tribune music correspondent wrote in
1998.
Fellow musicians marveled at his stamina.
"The trumpet is a very physically demanding instrument that takes a
lot of effort. When you get to that age, it’s remarkable he was able
to play at all," Trumble said.
Merian’s son said his father’s passion for music could be heard
through his horn.
"When you heard my father’s sound, it came right from his soul. He
played with all his gusto and with all his heart."
In addition to his son, Merian is survived by a sister, Florence
Kashian of Menlo Park, Calif.; and three grandchildren.
A memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m. today at Brown & Sons
Funeral Home, 604 43rd St. W., Bradenton.
Memorial donations may be made to TideWell Hospice and Palliative
Care, 5955 Rand Blvd., Sarasota, FL 34238.