Tony Dorsey

From Club Sandwich, No 17, 1980:

Tony Dorsey, 38 years old trombonist and arranger, comes from Macon, Georgia, where he lives with his wife Mary and daughters Tanzy and April. He studied music at university with of the aim of becoming a music teacher, but discovered that he could make more money “selling pencils in New York”. He then joined the U.S. Air Force as a trombonist in the band and ended up as their arranger. After four years in the Air Force, he joined Jo Tex’s band. “I was twenty-five and wanted to travel around and I’ve been travelling ever since.”

Tony formed his own band called Magic which featured his wife as lead vocalist. He was working in Nashville for Dial Records doing some horn and string arrangements for them when Paul McCartney came in to do some rehearsing. Tony received a call from Paul asking if he’d like to do some arrangements, which was the start of his association with Wings.

Since the last Wings tour, Tony has concentrated on his own R & B eight piece band, Bone, Holmes and Friends. It features Tony’s wife Mary as one of the three woman vocalists, whose voice is reminiscent of Aretha Franklin’s. Tony plays trombone and keyboards. The group has been playing at college fraternities and sororities in the South-eastern states, while gathering more original material and looking out for a recording contract.

At the time I recorded Venus and Mars with Wings, I got in touch with Tony Dorsey who was a trombone player from Georgia. He was a lot of fun and a great arranger, so we felt like we were in safe hands. He’d ask, ‘What do you need, a sax? A trumpet? A trombone?’ And he became the director of that section. We took to having that in our live act as well, and it just broadened the appeal of the group. 

Paul McCartney – Interview with paulmccartney.com, March 27, 2025

Wings had a lineup change during the recording sessions for Venus and Mars, with Geoff Britton leaving and Joe English joining. Do you remember how you found Joe?

Tony Dorsey had mentioned this guy, Joe English, who was also from Georgia and was apparently a great little drummer. We played with him and liked him a lot. We already had Denny, Linda, me, and Jimmy McCulloch at that point.

Paul McCartney – Interview with paulmccartney.com, March 27, 2025

Albums, EPs & singles which Tony Dorsey contributed to

Concerts, TV & radio shows

Raymund Schütz • 3 months ago

The PaulMcCartney Project • 3 months ago

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