Sal Butera

Sal Butera was a great trombone player and a wonderful guy. He claimed he had played the trombone for around 60 years, played all styles, and knew about as much about big bands and jazz musicians as anybody. He also played a little piano and string bass in his younger years, but stuck strictly to the trombone in his later life.

Sal was born in New York, raised in San Francisco and played professionally for many years before settling in the San Jose area. He led his own combo and toured the Vegas, Tahoe, Reno circuit for about five years. He also played with Duke Ellington for a brief period and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show with Franky Fanelli.

Sal played with a lot of Bay Area big bands, including The Swing Solution, Elby Coy, Vernon Brooks, the Esquire band, Robin Anderson and The Millennium 2000 Band. He was the musical director of the Musicians' Warehouse Big Band. Sal was also a well-known insurance agent in the South Bay Area.

We don't have a good picture of him, but we did manage to get this picture out of the San Jose Mercury.