O’Hara, Betty

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O’Hara, Betty

O’Hara, Betty, multi-instrumentalist; d. April 18, 2000. She played in a Hartford, Conn., big band and for the Hartford Symphony in the 1950s. She moved to Calif, in 1960, married bass trombonist Barrett O’Hara, and during the 1980s, performed numerous studio sessions for TV and film on trumpet and euphonium. She toured Japan and Brazil, and performed in the bands of Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Freeman and Tommy Newsom. O’Hara played trombone, cornet and euphonium, arranged, and sang with the West Coast all-female big band, Maiden Voyage. She also co-led a female jazz quintet, Jazz Birds, and appeared frequently as a featured soloist at U.S. festivals.

Discography

Horns Aplenty (1985).

—Nancy Ann Lee