Topic: Bunny Berigan

Rowland Bernard "Bunny" Berigan (November 2, 1908 – June 2, 1942) was an American jazz trumpeter who rose to fame during the swing era, but whose virtuosity and influence were shortened by a losing battle with alcoholism that ended in his early death at age 33. He composed the jazz instrumentals "Chicken and Waffles" and "Blues" in 1935. His 1937 classic jazz recording "I Can't Get Started with You" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1975.

Berigan was born in Hilbert, Wisconsin, the son of William Berigan and Mamie Schlitzberg, and raised in Fox Lake, Wisconsin. A musical child prodigy, having learned the violin and trumpet at an early age, Berigan played in local orchestras by his late teens before auditioning for the successful Hal Kemp orchestra in 1928 or 1929.

Kemp first spurned the young trumpeter, reputedly because Berigan at the time had an uncertain tone, but any deficiencies were apparently resolved a year and a half later: this time, in mid-1930, Kemp hired Berigan. Berigan's first recorded trumpet solos came with the Kemp orchestra, and he was with the unit when they toured England later in the year.