Zeke Zarchy looms large among the premier trumpeters of the swing era. A vital component of big bands led by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Bob Crosby, he remains best remembered for his celebrated tenure with Glenn Miller, and was the last surviving member of Miller's now-legendary Army Air Force Band. Born Rubin Zarchy in New York City on June 12, 1915, he first played violin, but after a stint as bugler with his Boy Scout troop he switched permanently to trumpet while in his early teens. Soon after joining the Joe Haymes Orchestra in 1935, Zarchy cut his first studio session. He signed on with Goodman a year later, soon after defecting to the Shaw orchestra. When Shaw's ranks splintered during a stop in Dallas, Zarchy returned to New York in hopes of reclaiming his spot with Goodman. Instead, he found Harry James had already assumed his trumpet duties, so in early 1937, Zarchy landed with Crosby, whose group favored a Dixieland-inspired approach galvanized by New Orleans-born tenorist Eddie Miller and clarinetist Irving Fazola. Zarchy cut a series of recordings and toured widely during his stay with Crosby, but frictions within the lineup prompted his exit in 1939. He then joined vibist Red Norvo and his vocalist/wife Mildred Bailey, followed by a return engagement under Crosby and a brief stint with Tommy Dorsey. Zarchy joined Miller in 1940. Originally planned as a short-term gig, he proved so integral to Miller's lush, radiant sound that the job quickly became permanent, and when Miller enlisted in the U.S. Army in the fall of 1942, Zarchy was the first musician selected for what would become the bandleader's military orchestra. Zarchy served as lead trumpet in Miller's Army Air Force Band through the end of World War II, and was reportedly the last man to speak to Miller before he boarded his fatal flight to France on December 15, 1944. After World War II ended, Zarchy settled in Los Angeles, becoming an in-demand Hollywood session player on films including #West Side Story, #Dr. Zhivago and, perhaps inevitably, #The Glenn Miller Story. He also played on studio dates headlined by his boyhood idol Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and Dinah Shore, and during the '60s and '70s he served in the house bands of a series of CBS television variety shows including #The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, #The Danny Kaye Show, and #The Jonathan Winters Show. Upon retiring from studio work in 1980, Zarchy joined the Great Pacific Jazz Band, a group comprised of former Walt Disney studio musicians. He toured extensively during the two decades to follow, earning a particularly large following in Japan, where he played dozens of times. Throughout his career, Zarchy adhered to the note-perfect Miller formula, and never improvised: "I would have been scared witless," he later admitted to an interviewer. Zarchy died in Irvine, CA on April 12, 2009. He was 93 years old. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi