After being discharged from the Army in 1945, Pete Rugolo became the primary arranger for the Stan Kenton Band and is credited with keeping that band alive in an era when big band music was beginning to fade.
In 1955, Rugolo created an album combining the vocal group, The Four Freshmen, with an all-star trombone quintet selected from various Kenton ensembles. Four Freshmen and Five Trombones (Capitol Records) was “the first trombone record I remember really loving,” said trombonist/vocalist Hailey Brinnel. “Frank Rosalino was the lead on that album. Big band is really where my heart lies, and I think a lot of it comes from that record — that section sound with Frank’s cutting sound on top.” (The other trombonists on the album are Harry Betts, Milt Bernhart, Tommy Pederson, and George Roberts).
The 30-year-old Brinnel grew up in a musical family in Longmeadow, MA, a town right outside of Springfield. Her father, Dave Brinnel, is a pianist and vocalist, and she began playing drums with him when she was 12 years old. During her middle and high school years she was sometimes taking three lessons a week — drums, trombone, and vocal. But by the time she was ready for college, Brinnel had decided to concentrate on playing the trombone and singing.
“I’m really passionate about music education,” she said, “so I wanted to go to a school where I could study music education and also jazz.” She decided on the Boyer School of Music at Philadelphia’s Temple University. “They have a Jazz Education major there, and when I applied and got in, I got a phone call from Terell Stafford (trumpeter and Director of Jazz Studies), and he ensured me that I could participate on trombone and vocals in addition to Education Studies. I actually have just started teaching in the Music Education department at Temple.”
Brinnel was in Stafford’s big band throughout her time at Temple, and two other important mentors were trombonist Mark Patterson and Greg Kettinger, a guitarist and jazz theory professor. Stafford, she said, “pushed me as a musician, especially in a big band setting.” Brinnel’s trombone lessons while in high school had been classical, so Patterson was “the first teacher that really encouraged creativity with specific parameters such as improvising in unconventional ways. Not having played much jazz trombone, I hadn’t done much improvising.” Even though he was a guitarist, Kettinger helped Brinnel with her vocalizing. “I was the singer in Greg’s big band at Temple, so, strangely enough, he was my first vocal jazz instructor.”
Stafford remembered Brinnel as “a really hard worker! She has really found her own sound and continues to perform on a very high level. She is a true inspiration to us all.” While Brinnel was at Temple, Stafford introduced her to drummer Sherrie Maricle, Director of the DIVA Jazz Orchestra. “Sherrie gave me a gig pretty much right away,” Brinnel recalled. “The first one was at the Deer Head Inn (in Delaware Water Gap, PA). It’s become one of my favorite jazz clubs. I’ve also played there with my own groups.”
Maricle said she immediately recognized Brinnel’s “great talent and endless potential in ‘all things jazz.’ Over the years, she has become a treasured colleague and an artist to be admired for her creativity and contributions to our field. She’s a brilliant vocalist, trombonist, bandleader, arranger, and human being.” When DIVA performed in September at the Middlesex County Jazz Festival in Metuchen, Brinnel gave a stirring performance of “Every Day I Have the Blues”, a tune featured in Tappin’ Thru Life, DIVA’s musical revue honoring the late dancer/singer Maurice Hines.
In addition to her early exposure to Frank Rosalino, Brinnel is “really into the J.J Johnson and Kai Winding recordings, and I’ve studied and played a lot of the early New Orleans jazz — Jack Teagarden and people in that era.”
As for vocalists, she discovered Ella Fitzgerald in middle school. “She was the first person that got me excited. And, Sinatra. There are a ton of tunes that I’ve really enjoyed from Sinatra albums that aren’t as widely played. That’s why I used to sing way too low in my range, from singing along with Sinatra.” Later in high school, she discovered Betty Carter and Cecile McLorin Salvant.
Beautiful Tomorrow, Brinnel’s latest album, was released in March 2023 on the Outside in Music label and received four stars from DownBeat Magazine. When Jersey Jazz‘s Joe Lang reviewed it in April 2023, he mentioned “the emergence of an increasing number of female instrumentalist/vocalists. One of the best has emerged from Philadelphia, trombonist/vocalist Hailey Brinnel. Her latest release is a 10-song gem . . . Brinnel is a jazz-inspired vocalist who also is a superb trombonist.”
Brinnel just finished recording a brand-new album, as yet unnamed. “It includes original arrangements from myself and band members of Broadway tunes,” she said. “I’m getting away from Great American Songbook and Tin Pan Alley songs and more toward Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber — a lot of stuff that might not be considered in the jazz canon. I’m working with a record label to see a timeline that makes sense, but we’re probably looking at a summer or fall release.” The makeup of the band? “Everything from trio to septet.” Guests will include alto saxophonist Grace Kelly and trumpeter Summer Camargo. Her drummer is Steve Fidyk, who spent more than 21 years with the Army Blues Big Band.
As for current gigs, Brinnel will be at Philadelphia’s Cellar Dog on December 19, and she’s going to be playing on the main stage at the Jazz Education Network conference in New Orleans in January.-SANFORD JOSEPHSON
PHOTO BY ANTHONY ALVAREZ