Norman Bailey was an American musician who was a member of the Lawrence Welk

Lawrence Welk

Lawrence Welk was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1982...

 orchestra from 1952 to 1973.

Born in Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

; he took up music with his instrument of choice, the trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

. He joined the Welk band in 1951 after spending seventeen years with the Freddy Martin

Freddy Martin

Frederick Alfred Martin was an American bandleader and tenor saxophonist.-Early life:Martin was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Raised largely in an orphanage and with various relatives, Martin started out playing drums, then switched to C-melody saxophone and later tenor saxophone, the latter the one...

 band. Some of his most notable solo numbers during his tenure on the show include Sugar Blues

Sugar Blues (song)

Sugar Blues is a song that became popular by Clyde McCoy featuring the sound of the growling wah-wah mute. He recorded it no less than four times. It became his trademark song. It was written in 1920 by Clarence Williams and recorded for the first time by Leona Williams and her Dixie Band in 1922....

and Hot Lips

Hot Lips

"Hot Lips" is a popular song written by jazz trumpeter Henry Busse, Henry Lange, and Lou Davis. The song was a #1 hit for Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra...

, he also gave one of his trumpets to one of his proteges Johnny Zell

Johnny Zell

Johnny Zell is an American musician, best known as a trumpeter from The Lawrence Welk Show, a musical, variety-show television series.-Early life and education:...

, who later became a member of the Welk orchestra.