Frank L. Ryerson

Who was Frank L. Ryerson?

Frank Layton Ryerson was an American trumpeter, composer, arranger and educator. As a trumpeter and arranger, Ryerson performed and recorded with several big bands, beginning in 1927, including Mal Hallett and His Orchestra, Glen Gray and His Casa Loma Orchestra, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Dorsey, and Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra

Ryerson co-wrote the Jimmy Dorsey hit "Blue Champagne" written in 1941 and covered by The Manhattan Transfer in their 1975 album titled The Manhattan Transfer.

He also wrote the stirring "Lament in D Minor." By 1949 he was the orchestral arranger for Vaughn Monroe.

For the remainder of his career he was an educator. In the 1950s he ran the Paramus, New Jersey, school music program, becoming in 1957 the music director at the new Paramus High School where he created a student concert band, marching band and big-band style dance band, arranging many of the charts himself and introducing innovative techniques to the marching band not common at the time. The organizations were known for their high quality and enthusiasm from the beginning. He wrote the alma mater lyrics.