PETER ECKLUND

ECKLUND--Peter Johnson, age 74, died in Brooklyn, New York on April 8, 2020, after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease. A Yale graduate, Mr. Ecklund earned degrees in both history (BA) and teaching (MAT). Peter Ecklund pursued a 50-year professional career in New York as a cornetist, composer, and arranger, specializing in American pre-swing jazz. He performed with Leon Redbone, the David Bromberg Band, Greg Allman, and the Orphan Newsboys with Marty Grosz as well as Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, a 1920's dance band, among others. He also performed for the sound tracks for the Ken Burns documentaries including The Civil War, Baseball, and The American West and regularly arranged music for Saturday Night Live. Mr. Ecklund published two books of great trumpet and cornet solos by Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbacke. Friends and family remember Peter Eckund's quiet and unassuming manner, his keen intelligence, and his dry humor. He was the son of the late John Edwin and Mary Sizer Ecklund of Woodbridge, Connecticut. Mr. Ecklund is survived by two sisters: Hilda Ecklund Ollmann of Round Rock, Texas and Elizabeth (Lisa) Ecklund Berger of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; one brother, John (Jack) Edwin Ecklund of Olympia, Washington; and stepmother Constance Cryer Ecklund of Woodbridge, Connecticut, one niece, three nephews, a great-niece, and six great-nephews. One great-nephew, a trombonist, was being taught musical improvisation by Peter.