Jazz bandleader. Born in Denver, Colorado. He was a violinist in the Denver Symphony Orchestra between 1912 and 1915 and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra until 1918. After brief service in the U.S. Navy during World War I, he became the leader of the orchestra at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco in 1919. He moved this band to engagements in Atlantic City and New York in 1920, toured with it in Europe in 1923, made numerous recordings, and was credited with raising the standards for popular orchestras. He became famous in the 1920s as a pioneer of "sweet-style" as opposed to traditional jazz. Whiteman gained wide renown as the conductor of the 1924 premiere of Rhapsody in Blue, one of George Gershwin's experiments in "symphonic jazz" that he commissioned. He was promoted thereafter as the "king of jazz," though he is best known in jazz circles as the employer of several influential musicians, including Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, and the Dorsey brothers. He led his orchestra throughout the mid-1940s, then worked as the music director of ABC in New York until his retirement. 1920 Whispering/Japanese SandmanSingles 1920 Wang Wang BluesSingles 1922 Three O'Clock In The MorningSingles 1922 Hot LipsSingles 1922 I'll Build A Stairway To ParadiseSingles 1927 My Blue HeavenSingles 1928 Ol' Man RiverSingles 1930 King Of JazzFilms 1932 All Of MeSingles 1933 Smoke Gets In Your EyesSingles 1935 Thanks A MillionFilms 1938 I'm Comin' VirginiaSingles 1940 Strike Up The BandFilms 1942 Trav'lin LightSingles 1943 The Old Music MasterSingles 1944 Atlantic CityFilms 1945 Rhapsody In BlueFilms With Bing Crosby (1928--31)