Baritonist
Joe Temperley was the perfect musician to fill in for
Harry Carney during re-creations of
Duke Ellington's music, a role that often overshadowed his own fine voice.
Temperley actually started on the alto and recorded on tenor with English bands led by Harry Parry (1949),
Jack Parnell,
Tony Crombie, and
Tommy Whittle. He stuck to baritone during a long association with
Humphrey Lyttelton's popular band (1958-1965). In 1965,
Temperley moved to New York, working with a variety of big bands (including
Woody Herman,
Buddy Rich,
Thad Jones-Mel Lewis, and
Clark Terry). In 1974, he became the first replacement for
Harry Carney with
the Mercer Ellington Orchestra and then freelanced with the who's who of jazz including (starting in 1990)
the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra under the direction of
Wynton Marsalis.
Temperley recorded several fine albums as a leader, most notably for the Scottish Hep label; on the centennial of
Ellington's birth, he released 1999's Double Duke. He died at his home in Manhattan in May 2016 at the age of 86. ~ Scott Yanow