16 Facts About Jimmy Knepper

James Minter Knepper was an American jazz trombonist.

Jimmy Knepper was born in Los Angeles, California, United States, the second son of a nurse and a police officer.

Jimmy Knepper's parents divorced shortly after his birth, and his mother had to take her abusive husband to court in order to get child support.

Jimmy Knepper picked up his first instrument, an alto horn, at the age of six while he was a pupil there.

Jimmy Knepper played his first professional gigs in Los Angeles, and traveled to Spokane, Washington, at the age of 15.

Jimmy Knepper graduated high school, and later attended classes at Los Angeles Community College.

Jimmy Knepper married Maxine Helen Fields, a trumpet player with the all-female jazz band the International Sweethearts of Rhythm on May 8,1954, at a civil ceremony in Tucson, Arizona, while he was on a tour with the Maynard Ferguson Band.

Jimmy Knepper documented this tour meticulously in a series of letters he sent home to his wife, Maxine, his daughter, Robin, and his son, Timothy.

In 1962, Jimmy Knepper toured the Soviet Union with Benny Goodman's Big Band, as part of a cultural exchange during the Cold War, in which the Bolshoi Ballet came to the US.

Jimmy Knepper played in the pit orchestra through the entire run of the Broadway show Funny Girl, with Barbra Streisand, and later, Mimi Hines.

Jimmy Knepper appeared on and off Broadway in On Your Toes, and The Me Nobody Knows.

Jimmy Knepper again toured the USSR, this time with TJML, as well as Japan and Europe with them, and appeared with them at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974.

In 1969, Jimmy Knepper toured and recorded You Never Know Who Your Friends Are, with keyboardist Al Kooper, in the jazz period which followed his departure from Blood, Sweat and Tears.

Jimmy Knepper appeared on this concert tour which included shows at the Philadelphia Spectrum, and in Atlanta, where he briefly met Janis Joplin.

Jimmy Knepper received "Best Trombonist" award from DownBeat Reader's Poll four years running from 1981 to 1984; he achieved first place in the DownBeat Critics' Poll in 1981, and then five years running from 1983 to 1987.

The blow broke one of Jimmy Knepper's teeth, ruined his embouchure and resulted in the loss of the top octave of his range on the trombone for almost two years.