On September 14, 1984, Sid Torin died of heart and lung failure at the Miami Heart Institute — aged 72, said the wire obituary; 74, if his December 1909 birthdate is right. As Symphony Sid he is credited as the first disc jockey to put bebop on American radio, broadcasting live from the Royal Roost and then Birdland over a network one obituary put at thirty-eight states, and selling clothing shops between choruses: “If you got eyes to be the sharpest, take a tip from Old Daddy Sid.” Lester Young wrote him a theme tune, “Jumpin’ with Symphony Sid,” and King Pleasure later put words to it. Police raided his apartment for marijuana in 1948; the trial ended in a mistrial. When he turned to Latin and Afro-Cuban music in the late 1950s, some listeners rechristened him the Jazz Traitor. He spent his last twelve years fishing off Islamorada, telling stories about Bird and Prez that nobody thought to record.
Symphony Sid with Josh White — at the microphone, right, with his guitar — at WHOM, New York, between 1946 and 1948. The Library of Congress caption names only those two; the third man in the frame is unidentified. (Photo: William P. Gottlieb, William P. Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress, Public Domain)
Sources: Symphony Sid — Wikipedia (birth name; station history; 1948 marijuana raid and 1949 mistrial; WEVD Latin programming and the “Jazz Traitor” tag; death) , Obituary: Symphony Sid Torin, Miami Herald, September 15, 1984 (cause of death; Miami Heart Institute; Birdland broadcasts) , Obituary/appreciation: Symphony Sid Torin, Miami Herald, September 18, 1984 (first to play bop on radio; thirty-eight states; “Old Daddy Sid” ad patter; twelve years at Islamorada; the untold Bird and Prez stories) , “Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid” — Sandy Brown Jazz, Tracks Unwrapped (Lester Young’s composition; King Pleasure’s lyric; the WJZ network show; the marijuana trial; the “Jazz Traitor” label) , “‘Symphony Sid’ Torin, jazz radio personality, was 72” — UPI Archives, September 14, 1984 (contemporary wire obituary; the disputed age)
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