Veteran player able to play in either sweet or aggressive big band style.
Lee Castle began his professional career using name Lee Castaldo in '30s. He was featured soloist with Joe Haynes,
Artie Shaw (three times),
Tommy Dorsey,
Glen Miller,
Jack Teagarden,
Will Bradley and
Benny Goodman for various periods between 1936 and 1950. He became
Lee Castle in 1942, and started heading his own groups in late '30s, though he was never as successful as when playing with bigger name leaders.
Castle joined
the Dorsey brothers in 1953, and was briefly its leader. After
Jimmy Dorsey's death in 1957, the band split up into two memorial units, each taking the name of one brother.
Castle took over at helm of the
Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and continued leading it through the '80s. ~ Ron Wynn