Getty H. Huffine

Them Basses

Henry Fillmore (1881-1956) was the most colorful bandman of his time, and that era stretched across fifty vibrant years during which he probably wrote more band music much of it under assumed names than any composer/bandmaster in history. Fillmore s background in his family s publishing house, the Fillmore Brothers Company of Cincinnati, led him at an early age down a variety of productive paths as a composer, including those of the hymn, popular overture, fox-trot, waltz, and his own particularly lucrative specialty the trombone novelty, such as Lassus Trombone, Bone s Trombone or Shoutin Liza Trombone. His irrepressible talent for marches produced a string of masterpieces uniquely of his own flavor.