Dick Cary; Arranger, Pianist and Trumpeter With Jazz Greats

Dick Cary, a formally trained violinist who became a jazz pianist, trumpet player and arranger with such greats as Louis Armstrong and Eddie Condon, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 77.

Cary died of cancer, said his friend and biographer, jazz writer Floyd Levin, who called Cary a “musician’s musician.”

A featured artist at the annual L.A. Classic and Sacramento jazz festivals, Cary was honored in 1987 by the Sacramento gathering as the “Emperor of Jazz.”

Reviewing his work a few years ago, Times jazz critic Leonard Feather described Cary as “a trumpeter whose beautifully constructed solos and endearing sound blend the best of Bobby Hackett and Satch (Louis Armstrong).”

Among Cary’s best-known albums were “Town Hall Concert” with Armstrong in 1947, “Jammin’ at Condon’s” with Condon in 1954, “Dick Cary and His Dixieland Doodlers” in 1959, “The Amazing Dick Cary” in 1975 and “California Doings” in 1980.

Born July 1, 1916, in Hartford, Conn., Cary began studying the violin when he was 4 and was playing with the Hartford Symphony by age 11.

After studying at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., however, he switched to piano and trumpet, and to jazz. He played piano at Nick’s, a jazz club in New York, and trumpet at Eddie Condon’s and began arranging for Benny Goodman’s big band in the early 1940s.

After a stint in the Army during World War II, Cary became the pianist when Armstrong formed his All-Stars in 1946.

Cary moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1959 and worked as a free-lance musician, arranger and composer, occasionally forming a sextet or other performing and recording group. He regularly tried out his compositions and arrangements with a group of studio musicians he dubbed his Tuesday Night Band, playing piano and gracefully switching to a trumpet he held in his lap.

Highly respected by jazz and big-band luminaries, Cary was better known by musicians than by the public.

“I sometimes think I am kind of lucky,” he told Levin in 1991. “I think I might not have the kind of mentality to stand being a star.”

Cary is survived by two daughters, Judy Cary and Janet Mevs; a brother, William, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.