Willie Dennis

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Willie Dennis
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Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Country	United States
Years active	1950–1965
Genres	Jazz
Labels	Debut Records

Willie Dennis (January 10, 1926 – July 8, 1965) was an American jazz trombonist.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dennis was known as a big band musician, but was also an influential bebop soloist. After working with Elliot Lawrence, Claude Thornhill, and Sam Donahue, Dennis also performed with Charles Mingus, appearing on two of Mingus's more successful albums in 1959, Blues & Roots and Mingus Ah Um. In 1953, Dennis recorded Four Trombones (released in 1957) for Mingus's Debut Records. The other three trombones were J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding, and Bennie Green; Mingus played bass. The fullest recorded example of Dennis's solo work, however, is on a little-known 1956 Savoy disc by pianist Ronnie Ball (like Dennis, a student of Tristano), All About Ronnie, in the company of Ted Brown, Wendell Marshall and Kenny Clarke.

In the late 1950s Dennis returned to his big band roots, joining Buddy Rich in 1959 after stints with Benny Goodman (with whom he travelled to the Soviet Union in 1962) and Woody Herman. In the 1960s, Dennis also performed often with Gerry Mulligan.

Dennis died in a car crash in New York, 1965.