Fred Ohms

His surname suggesting great possible excitement for gatherings of electricians and Buddhists alike, trombonist Fred Ohms had a relatively short career which ended with a fatal bout of double pneumonia in the early spring of 1956. By this time Ohms was calling New York City's recording studio scene home, having established himself as both a fine reader and quick study when it came to commercial recording sessions. He still played jazz gigs right up to the end of his career, whenever he could fit them in, but nothing with the respected profile of his performing in the ´30s in the company of tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and trumpeter Roy Eldridge.

In the ´40s, Ohms enjoyed a long stretch with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, steady work but a brass section assignment with much less inventive content than the type of music the trombonist had been playing as a younger man. Prior to his focus on studio sessions, Ohms slid fairly quickly between three other bandleaders in the second half of the '40s. In the summer of 1946 he performed with Eddie Condon--a relationship the trombonist might have been able to return to in his senior years, as many other swing veterans did, if only Ohms had survived that long. This was followed with what musicians like to call "a minute" with trumpeter Muggsy Spanier in 1947, then a period beginning in 1948 with another trumpeter, Billy Butterfield. ~ Eugene Chadbourne