Sam Musiker

Sam Musiker pursued parallel paths in music across three decades beginning in the 1930s and extending into the 1950s. Recognized for his rich, full-bodied tone on clarinet while occasionally doubling on tenor and alto saxophone, he gained widest public recognition playing in Gene Krupa's orchestra from its formation in 1938 through the peak popularity of the early 1940s and up to the group's dissolution in 1944. Within klezmer circles he also stood out as part of a so-called royal family, earning particular distinction in that repertory. His clarinet appears on nearly every Krupa session from the six years that followed Benny Goodman's departure, thereby intersecting with the trajectories of Roy Eldridge and Anita O'Day; notable examples include his featured passages on "Blue Rhythm Fantasy," "Full Dress Hop," and "Let Me Off Uptown." On the klezmer side he collaborated with his brother Ray Musiker for a sequence of acclaimed RCA Victor sides in the 1950s and, under the Musiker Brothers name, joined his father-in-law—the renowned clarinetist Dave Tarras—on the 1955 album Tanz!. Additional klezmer associations encompassed work with Joel Rubin and the Epstein Brothers Orchestra. His jazz résumé further lists a mid-1940s stint alongside Sarah Vaughan. Musiker died in 1965.