TromboneChat

Among the first "bass trombone prominent" music I can recall hearing was some Danny Davis and The Nashville Brass recordings from the 1960's and 1970's (my mother mostly listened to Country and Western). If you're unfamiliar with the group, they played mostly C&W standards but with a brass section of 2-3 trumpets and 2 trombones (tenor and bass) in place of the vocals. LOTS of unison octaves in the trombones. The group apparently still exists under the leadership of Herb Bruce.

From what I can piece together, the original trombone section was Rex Peer on tenor and Frank Smith on bass. I haven't been able to find any significant information about Frank Smith online, other than that he died in a car accident and was replaced by Phil Jones. Does anyone have any more information?

I did get a lot of hits about the ITF Frank Smith Tenor Trombone Competition; is that the same Frank Smith?

Both Herb Bruce and Philip Jones are great players.
I get to play with Herb quite a bit when He subs on the Big Band I play with here in Sarasota.
2 of the guys play Herb Bruce Trombones