Henry Fillmore

Henry Fillmore (3 December 1881 – 7 December 1956) was a United States composer and publisher.

A prolific composer, Fillmore wrote over 250 tunes and arranged orchestrations for hundreds more; he also published a great number of tunes under various pseudonyms. While best known for march music and screamers, he also wrote waltzes, foxtrots, hymns, novelty numbers, overtures and waltzes.

James Henry Fillmore Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio as the eldest of 5 children. In his youth he mastered piano, guitar, violin, and flute -- as well as the slide trombone, which at first he played in secret, as his conservative religious father believed it an uncouth and sinful instrument. Fillmore was also a singer for his church choir as a boy. He began composing at 18, with his first published march "Higham", named after a line of brass instruments. Fillmore entered the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1901. After this he traveled around the United States as a circus bandmaster with his wife, an exotic dancer named Mabel May Jones. They got married in St Louis.

Music to Fillmore's popular "Trombone Family" seriesIn the 1920s he was back in Cincinnati, directing the Shriners Temple Band, which he turned into one of the most virtuosic marching bands in the country.

The complete, up-to-date and editable article about Henry Fillmore can be found at Wikipedia: Henry Fillmore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fillmore