Painfully little is known about trumpeter Sam Trippe's career. Based on my research last night, Trippe was born in 1923 and grew up near Rochester, N.Y. He married in 1945 and lived with his wife, Dorothy, in the village of Endicott, N.Y. According to a 1946 ad in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Trippe played jam sessions with drummer Jimmy Antonelli at the Casablanca on Endicott's Main Street.
According to the Binghamton Press in Binghamton, N.Y., Trippe's family name was Trippicchio. Later in '46, Trippe and his wife along with Trippe's parents decided to move to Los Angeles. It's unclear why they relocated or what Trippe did while out there. My guess is he was offered a well-paying band job then played for live television shows in L.A. In 1958, Trippe formed a big band, which appeared on L.A.'s channel 2 during a U.S. Marine Corps musicians variety show. The show, Dress Blues, was hosted by Lt. Bob Osterberg, who introduced singer Pam Garner backed by Trippe's orchestra.
In May 1959, Trippe appeared on TV's channel 5 fronting a 17-piece band on a show called Larry Finley's Strictly Informal. On June 3, 1959, Trippe recorded his first album with the band for the Sheen label, which was based in Monrovia, Ca. The album was Explosion! Sadly, he would never hear the recording when it was released late that year.
On Monday evening, November 2, 1959, Trippe, 36, and his wife, Dorothy, 33, were killed in a freak auto accident. According to The Los Angeles Times of Nov. 3, the driver of a sedan operated by Vincent Eria, 35, jumped the divide on the San Bernardino Freeway near Eastern Ave. and smashed head-on into Trippe's convertible, crushing the front-end nearly to the windshield.
The Trippes were heading home to the La Puente section of the city when their car was struck by Eria, who was heading toward downtown L.A. A second car driven by Richard Conger, 38, smashed into the rear of Trippe's car after it was stopped cold by Eria's vehicle.
On November 6, the Binghamton Press in New York picked up an Associated Press article reporting that four children were in the car. Three were the Trippes' children and the fourth was a friend of theirs. At the time, AP reported that Rosalia, 12, suffered light injuries, Frank, 14, was in fair condition with cuts, bruise and shock, while Angele 10, was in fair condition with a fractured right leg and internal injuries.
Frank Trippe's friend, Donald, 14, of La Puente, was listed in critical condition with a depressed skull fracture. Upon release from the hospital, Rosalia went to the La Puente home of her paternal grandfather, Frank. One can assume the other two Trippe children did the same when they were released. It's unclear whether Frank's friend, Donald, survived. The Los Angeles Times reported that after the accident, Eria was booked on suspicion of manslaughter. This indicates he likely was speeding and under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
It's impossible to imagine how horrible that accident must have been. At the time, cars didn't have seat belts or air bags, much of the interior dashboard was made of metal and chrome, and built-in radios had notoriously sharp metal edges. In addition, it's unclear how four children could have fit into a convertible's back seat safely. Unclear also is whether the convertible's top was up or down. Given the month and time of day, it likely was up. My guess also is that it took the fire department some time to pry open the Trippe vehicle to remove the passengers.
On February 28, 1960, a two-show benefit was held in L.A. to help raise money for the care of the Trippe's three children. An ad in The Los Angeles Times read as follows:
Have Fun Today! At the Biggest Dance in Los Angeles History. Stan Kenton, headlining the teenage afternoon dance; Lawrence Welk, headlining the evening dance... and all of these additional great bands: Gus Bivona, Rene Bloch, Claude Gordon, Baldwin's 7-Teens, Buddy Collette, Jerry Gray, Bobbie Hammack, Jack Millman, Johnny Otis, Jessie Price, Rene Touzet, the Phantoms, 6-Teens, Bo Wagner, Mort weiss, Dave Wells and Si Zentner. Plus members of the Sam Trippe Orchestra and many more. All in person today and tonight only at the Hollywood Palladium.
At the bottom, in small type, was this line: All proceeds are for the medical and maintenance expenses of the orphans of bandleader Sam Trippe.
A terrible story of misfortune. The reason I bothered to do this type of in-depth research yesterday is because no information about Trippe or the accident exists online or in books, and the album's original liner notes have no biographical detail.
Trippe's band featured Trippe, Roy Caton, Don Cinquemani, Bob Mitchell and Diz Mullens (tp); Joe Cadena, Ray Sikora and Kenny Tiffany (tb); Bill Smiley (b-tb); Bob Jung and Al Willet (as); Jay Migliori and Sid Miller (ts); Guy Sciaqua (bar); Shep Meyers (p); Francis James (b) and Chiz Harris (d). Arrangements were by trombonist Ray Sikora.
The tracks include Dress Blues, Grumpy, Bella's Back in Town, Larry Finley's Stomp, You Go to My Head, Ride Around the Block, How High the Moon, It's a Wonderful World and Wail Street. All of the songs that aren't standards were credited to Sikora, with the exception of Dress Blues (by Trippe) and Wail Street (by Barney Kessel). Clearly, two of the songs were named after the band's TV experiences—Dress Blues and Larry Finley's Stomp.
The entire album is, as the title hints, explosive. Each arrangement swings, and Trippe takes a beautiful solo on You Go to My Head—notes that hang longer in the air and are even more soulful that we know his sad fate five months later.
JazzWax tracks: Sam Trippe's Explosion! can be found here and here on a Fresh Sound release.
It's teamed with Bob Rogers: All That and This Too, another little-known big-band album recorded in Hollywood in 1961. The two-fer album is part of a new, ongoing series from Fresh Sound of rare big-band albums by unsung West Coast leaders that have undergone 24-bit remastering by Fresh Sound.
JazzWax clips: Here's Grumpy from Explosion!...
Here's You Go to My Head...
And here's This Too from the Bob Rogers album...
