Dr. James F. Mabry III

July 3, 1933 – May 21, 2020

In 1988, Jim Mabry, a composer and music professor at Buffalo State College, had the opportunity to acquire a collection of more than 200 jazz arrangements, many of them classics of the 1940s.

"It belonged to Charles Buell, a trumpeter who died a couple months ago," he told The Buffalo News in 1990. "He had purchased arrangements from guys all over the country. It was really the best dance book in town."

To play it, Dr. Mabry, who hadn't led a commercial jazz band since he was in college in Texas, assembled Jim Mabry's Nightlife – the Big Band, a 14-piece ensemble of well-seasoned local players that included jazz fusion guitarist Rick Strauss.

Nightlife appeared in the M&T Plaza Event Series, at Philharmonic balls and, remarkably, had a popular weekly date on summer nights at Mickey Rats Beach Club in Angola.

The band was just one of the many highlights of his musical career.

Dr. Mabry died May 21 in Garden Gate Health Care Facility, Cheektowaga, where he was under care for dementia. He was 86.

Born in Belton, Texas, James F. Mabry III attended Tarleton State College in Stephenville, Texas, and became a trombonist and bass trombonist with the renowned Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra. Based in Stuttgart, Germany, he toured Europe playing concerts for 18 months from 1954 to 1956.

Following his return, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in music education from the University of Texas at Austin. He was awarded a doctoral fellowship in composition from 1967 to 1969 at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., where he completed his doctorate in music composition in 1978.

He was chairman of the Music Department at Doane College in Crete, Neb., from 1969 to 1973, when he became an associate professor of music at the University of Rhode Island.

Before coming to Buffalo State in 1977, he was a trombonist with symphony orchestras in Austin, Texas, and Lincoln, Neb., and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and Brass Quintet. He also directed marching bands and designed football halftime shows.

He had learned to weld from his father and grandfather and, while in Nebraska, worked summers building grain elevators.

At Buffalo State, he established one of the first music computer labs at a college in the U.S. He retired in 2003.

Using pitch equivalents and unusual instrumentation, he wrote music ranging in style from Romantic to avant-garde.

Along with his academic duties, he was conductor or trombonist with the American Legion Band of the Tonawandas, the Bergholz German Band, Buffalo Silver Band, the German American Band, the Clarence Summer Orchestra and the Erie County Music Educators Wind Ensemble.

He also was music director and conductor for two Gilbert and Sullivan productions at Artpark in the 1980s and appeared with Buffalo Swing in the film "The Natural."

One of his compositions was performed at the dedication of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis in 1968. His Flute Concerto was given its premiere performance by flutist Carol Wincenc with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999.

Dr. Mabry received commissions to compose works for the Amherst Saxophone Quartet, the Amherst and Orchard Park symphonies and the Greater Buffalo Opera Company.

His arrangements of eight Stephen Foster songs were recorded by the University of Dortmund Chamber Choir and performed in Europe.

He also wrote orchestrations for the Buffalo Philharmonic to accompany Ani DiFranco in the program celebrating the opening of Marine Midland Arena, now the KeyBank Center, in 1996.

He was president of the Buffalo-Dortmund Sister City Committee for six terms and organized music exchanges between the two cities. He brought Dortmund's Revival Jazz Band to Buffalo for Dixieland jazz festivals for several years.

He was made an honorary member of the Chromatic Club of Buffalo for his many years of service as a performer and board president.

A Kenmore resident, he was competitive in the game of 42, a form of dominoes popular in the South.

He and his wife, Linda, a pianist and executive director of the Community Music School of Buffalo for 29 years, were married in 1972. They performed together as the Mabry Duo in Europe and the U.S., often playing his compositions.

Survivors also include a son, James F. IV; three daughters, Rebecca Mabry Ing, Cynthia Mabry Hughes and Katherine Mabry Garcia; two brothers, John and David; a half-brother, Joel; a half-sister, Zettie Mozelle Mabry; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

A celebration of his life will be held in Texas at a later date.