Ray Linn

Who was Ray Linn?

Ray Linn was an American jazz trumpeter.

Linn's first major engagements came in the late 1930s, playing with Tommy Dorsey and Woody Herman. He would return to play with Herman again several times, in 1945, 1947, and 1955-59. In the 1940s he spent time with Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Boyd Raeburn. He moved to Los Angeles in 1945, where he worked extensively as a studio musician, in addition to playing with Bob Crosby and his extended final tenure with Herman. He spent much of the 1960s playing music for television, including The Lawrence Welk Show.

Linn recorded eight tunes as a leader in 1946, and full-length albums in 1978 and 1980, the latter of which are Dixieland jazz efforts.