Concerto for Trombone is a 1942 instrumental crossover work in three movements, which trombonist Tommy Dorsey, one of the best known musical entertainment stars of his time, commissioned from Nathaniel Shilkret, a noted conductor and composer of music for recording, radio and film. Shilkret describes the first movement as "in classic form, but in the middle I introduced a fugue, partly in jazz form, and near the end I wrote the main theme in fox-trot rhythm." The second movement has a blues mood and the third movement is in a boogie-woogie rhythm. The blues second movement is a 1943 replacement of the original "negro spiritual" arrangement. The original second movement has never been performed. A cadenza in the first movement is written to include the use of multiphonics, although the earliest performances of the piece did not use this technique. Early history The concerto was first orchestrated in 1943 for a full orchestra. Dorsey rehearsed the piece using this orchestration while working on a motion picture for MGM. When Dorsey left Hollywood and was working with his own ensemble, a new orchestration was made for Dorsey's group. Dorsey had contracted with Werner Janssen for ten performances with Janssen's Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles, with the first performance scheduled for February 6, 1944. There was some publicity announcing these performances, but Dorsey was not available, and there were never any performances, despite claims in the liner notes to the LP Ecstasy to the contrary. The premier performance was by the New York City Symphony, directed by Leopold Stokowski, with Dorsey as soloist, broadcast over WNYC on February 15, 1945. WNYC recorded and has re-broadcast this performance several times through the years. The performance was part of one of Stokowski's student concerts at New York City Center. Stokowski, directing the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, with Hoyt Bohannon (who was a sergeant in the army at the time) as soloist, performed the concerto on July 28, 1945, in the Hollywood Bowl. Dorsey was originally contacted to be the soloist for the Hollywood Bowl performance, but a mutually acceptable price for the performance was never reached. Dorsey and Shilkret planned to make a Victor recording of the concerto, and Dorsey had asked Shilkret to write an arrangement that allowed for more resting places in the solo. Shilkret arranged the piece with the solo split between trombone and piano, and plans were made for Shilkret to