Elbert Raymond McMillin
Born: 6 August 6, 1916
Died: August 31, 1995 in Franklin TN
Instruments: clarinet, saxophones
Elbert McMillin probably came to America after 1930. There he gained the
nickname Dutch and started recording professionally in 1954.
On
November 15, 1956, Dutch
played saxophone on the second version of “Rock around with Ollie Vee”.
The session took place at the Bradley's Barn in Nashville.
The
recording studio was owned by Owen and Harold Bradley and in the early and
mid fifties it was the most important studio in Nashville. The great country
artists of the day recorded in that studio, mostly for the Decca and
Columbia labels. It was in this studio that Dutch McMillin got to be a part
of the "A Team" of session musicians.
In
November 1957 the famous Studio B opened and the A Team, including Dutch,
started doing session work for RCA in this studio as well. Dutch had always
been the only saxophone player in Nashville with a good deal of session
work. In the early fifties the need for saxophone on those hardcore country
records wasn’t that big, but when the scene in Nashville started going
into a different direction, Dutch was joined by Boots Randolph in 1958.
Amongst each other they shared the load of sessions and sometimes even
played together on songs.
Dutch
McMillin can be heard on records recorded by such artists as: Hank Locklin,
Perry Como, Al Hirt, Marty Robbins, Hank Snow and Bobby Bare.
The
height of his career was between 1960 and 1965.
All
through his musical career, that Dutch himself considered a hobby, he worked
as an insurance agent.