Arthur Whetsel

American jazz trumpet player (born February 22, 1905 in Punta Gorda, Florida - died January 1, 1940 in New York City, New York) After losing his father at age 1, Whetsel grew up in Los Angeles, CA. At age 8, he took up the cornet. When he was a teenager, his family moved to Washington, DC, where he performed with local bands, eventually joining Duke Ellington And His Washingtonians. He played on the band's first test recording for Victor, which they made under the name Snowden's Novelty Orchestra on July 26, 1923 in New York City. He left the band later that same year, however, to study medicine. Whetsel returned to Ellington in 1928, while the band was under contract at the "Cotton Club" in Harlem. This allowed him to perform on some of the most iconic recordings of the Ellington Band (e.g., "Black Beauty," "Black And Tan Fantasy," and "Mood Indigo"). In 1938, Whetsel began displaying erratic behavior during a concert and needed to be replaced with trumpeter Wallace Jones. Diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, he spent the last two years of his life confined at the Central Islip State Hospital in Suffolk County, New York. Whetsel is praised for his trumpet's "broad, open tone of ample depth and sonority" and "the elegant, soft quality of his muted play". He used a pair of wooden "Solotone" conical mutes, one glued inside the other, to achieve his trademark "haunting, ethereal sound when muted" (Steven Lasker). Whetsel was featured with Duke Ellington in the 1929 short film "Black And Tan Fantasy".