Doug Finke

Nationally Known Trombone Player

Featured At Bunny Berigan Jazz Jubilee

Doug Finke, nationally known trombone player, will be one of the musicians playing at the Fox Lake Bunny Berigan Jazz Jubilee. Although in many quarters he leads his own band, as a participant in the May 16-18 event in Fox Lake, Wisconsin, Doug will be a sideman in the newly formed Schulz/Hirsch All-Stars. Doug comes to Fox Lake from Louisville, Kentucky and has revealed that this will be his second visit to Fox Lake and the Bunny Berigan Jazz Jubilee.

Doug discovered jazz in the 1950’s as a young band student at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois. He related “I was heavily influenced by the simple, gutsy style of Chicago trombonist Jim Beebe. By the early 1960’s I found myself playing and touring with the Original Salty Dogs Jazz Band, the Smokey Stover Firehouse Band, and Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band. In those years I really saw a lot of clubs and festivals in and out of the United States.”

In 1964 Doug made a hard decision and he left the music business to focus on raising a family and pursuing a career. It is widely known that it is a tough job to make a living as an artist or a musician. Doug said “I did return to music some in the Vietnam years as I would play and write arrangements for the 3^rd Marine Air Wing Band in El Toro, CA.”-

In 1996 Doug, at the urging of drummer and longtime friend, Wayne Jones, picked up the trombone and began anew. “I immersed myself in daily practice and began searching for opportunities to play traditional jazz in the Philadelphia area where I had been living since 1988”…….. “and I found very few.” Like any good business man, if you cannot find what you need, you find a way to make it happen and that is just what Doug did. He assembled some of the finest musicians in the country to play classic jazz and named it the Independence Hall Jazz Band. At about the same time he formed another small group called Sterling Jazz that played a more refined type of jazz and in this group Doug confessed “I was able to explore the more modern jazz sound with my trombone.” It has been said that Doug has a mellow approach to jazz standards that is refreshing to say the least.

Doug recalls, “In 2003 I moved with business to Louisville, Kentucky, where I put together a small group of seasoned professionals. We played regularly at The Jazz Factory for awhile and now we are known as the West Market Street Stompers and we find ourselves traveling throughout the Midwest region. “Coming to Fox Lake for the Bunny Berigan Jazz Jubilee I will be alone, but I am really looking forward to working with all the guys that Bob Schulz and Bob Hirsch have brought together in this new group. I now play at a lot of festivals, parties, on cruises and for clubs and jazz societies so I just know that playing in Fox Lake again is going to be fun.”

In the Schulz/Hirsch All-Star Band Doug will be playing along side of Bobby Schulz – Nationally known Cornet player, originally from Wisconsin and now living in San Anselmo, CA.; Bob Hirsch – Nationally known jazz pianist, originally from Wisconsin and now living in Sacramento, CA.; Rob Amster – String Bass player, known far and wide living in Chicago, IL.; Rusty Jones – Drummer, highly sought by jazz bands and living in Chicago, IL.; each and every one of them top professionals in what is often referred to as “Dixieland Jazz”.