Bernie Privin

Bernard Privin
Born	(1919-02-12)February 12, 1919 New York City
Died	October 8, 1999(1999-10-08) (aged 80) New York
Resting place	Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Glendale, Queens, New York, United States
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Trumpeter
Employers	National Broadcasting Company CBS
Spouse	Ethel Rubenstein ​ (m. 1939)​
Children	2
Relatives	Eugene Lyons, David Sarnoff, Richard Baer, Bruce J. Oreck
Military career
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1943–1946
Battles/wars	World War II

Bernard Privin (February 12, 1919 – October 8, 1999)^[1] was an American jazz trumpeter.

Privin was born in New York City, United States.^[2] His father, Alter Privin, was a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe.

Privin was an autodidact on trumpet, and played professionally while in his teens.^[2] When he was 13, he bought a trumpet the day after he heard Louis Armstrong perform. He became a member of Harry Reser's band in 1937, and in the same year also worked with Bunny Berigan and Tommy Dorsey.^[2] In 1938, he joined the orchestra of Artie Shaw, and then worked with Charlie Barnet, Mal Hallett, and Benny Goodman.^[2] He was drafted in 1943 and played from 1943 to 1946 with the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band in Europe.^[2] After returning to the United States, he worked with Goodman once more, then became a staff musician for radio and television; he worked with NBC for two years and then CBS, the latter well into the 1960s.^[2] Concomitantly he played as a session musician, especially with Goodman throughout the 1950s, as well as for musicians such as Sy Oliver and Al Caiola.^[1]

Privin played frequently in Europe from the 1960s onward;^[2] he played in Sweden multiple times in the 1960s, and was a member of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, under the direction of Warren Covington and Pee Wee Erwin, for tours of Europe in the mid-1970s. He was a member of the New York Jazz Repertory Company when it toured the Soviet Union in 1975.^[1]

He died in October 1999, in White Plains, New York, at the age of 80.^[1]

• Brian Peerless, "Bernie Privin". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. 2nd edition, ed. Barry Kernfeld, 2004.

• Bernie Privin recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings