photos at right, David middle back row in black tux, with Count Basie and Joe Williams, Las Vegas, Tropicana Hotel, 1970. 2nd photo of David at Stardust Hotel, Las Vegas, 1970, playing in Lido de Paris Show

Musician - trumpet, composer, arranger, U. S. Navy Band - 1963-1966
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The North Texas State University One O'clock Lab Band, Leon Breeden - Lab '69 Album, LP, Spring Concert, 1 April 1969
Trumpet [Lead] – Dave Oyler
http://jazz.unt.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/one-oclock-discography-2017-07-11.pdf
Eleanor Rigby
http://jazz.unt.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/one-oclock-discography-2017-07-11.pdf
David Oyler(lead trumpet,Griffith,IN)

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Tribute to Leon Breeden
http://jazz.unt.edu/remembering-leon-breeden
Thank you Leon
Submitted by Dave Oyler (not verified) on Sat, 08/14/2010 - 7:46pm.

From an early age I knew music was to be my life. I always sought the best teachers I could find that would take me as a student. During my life I found only four that I would consider as my mentors - Donald S. Reinhardt, Renold Schilke, Billy Byers and Leon Breeden. As I progressed along my musical road each one gave me the guidance I was seeking to fulfill my quest. Each one had his own message and way of doing things but they all professed a common thread - be true to yourself, your values and never accept second best. Although many of Leon's students weren't aware of this philosophy it was this high standard that he imparted into their lives with his jazz program and the UNT one o'clock band. Many one o'clock rehearsals were delegated to the sight reading of new music. His lesson - get it right the first time and you won't have to do it again. This lesson was not fully realized until I worked the studios of LA. I could continue for hours about all the wonderful things this man did for so many but I will leave with this one thought - Thank you Dr. Breeden! It is an HONOR to be one of your students.

Dave Oyler - 1969

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David Oyler, professional musician and former resident of Humboldt and Chanute, Kansas Dies at Age 72

David Allen Oyler, professional trumpet musician, band leader, composer-arranger, passed away in Palatka, Florida on January 2, 2018, at the age of 72, after a 15 year battle with throat cancer. He was born in Caney, Kansas on November 26, 1945, the son of Charles Eugene "Gene" Oyler and Edith Mae Thompson.
As a small child his family lived on the Troy Beach farm southeast of Humboldt across from the Jack Daniels family and later moved to Chanute where he grew to manhood. He attended Hutton Elementary School, Royster Junior High School, and graduated from Chanute High School in 1963. His music career began at the age of 10 at Hutton Elementary School Band where he played trumpet, and played in the bands of Chanute Schools he attended.
In 1959 Les Brown and his Band of Renown played a concert at the Memorial Auditorium in Chanute , which David attended at age 13, and the lead trumpet player, Wes Hensel, would become David's mentor in Las Vegas in 1970 from whom he learned his professional writing skills as composer-arranger and remained life-long friends until Hensel's death. David knew at a very young age he wanted to be a professional jazz and big band musician as he wrote in an autobiography when he was in the 9th grade. His professional experience included the U. S. Naval Fleet Bands, staff member of the Naval School of Music, tours with Si Zenter, Andy Williams, Henry Mancini, Roger Williams, Peter Nero, The Osmonds, Sergio Mendez's Band Brazil '66, First Trumpet of the One O'clock North Texas State University Lab Band under direction of Leon Breeden 1969 and he was recorded on the Spring Concert Album, April, 1969, the Jerry Gray Orchestra at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, Count Basie Orchestra, singer Joe Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Paul Anka, Steve Allen, and Terry Gibbs. He wrote to a former classmate in 2004 "I look back on my life in the music biz and wonder what road I would have taken if it had not been for the burning desire to play the trumpet and be remembered as a first class musician. My resume in the music biz looks like a who's who."
In July, 1963 at age 17, he enlisted in the Navy in a special program that allowed him to get out before he turned 21. He took his basic training at the Great Lakes recruit training command where he auditioned for the music program and passed. He then went to Washington, D. C. to the Naval School of Music. While in D. C. President Kennedy was assassinated and because he had been in the Navy, the Navy was assigned the duty of being the fore-front of the ceremonial guard. Because the music school was considered as the ceremonial unit of the military, David found himself assigned an active role in his funeral. He was part of the unit that lined the funeral procession as the body was moved from place to place. David wrote "As the world watched on TV, I had a front row seat. I'll never forget it." He did two tours at sea on aircraft carriers where the fleet band he played in did numerous concerts in many countries. While in the Navy he took private trumpet lessons from professional tutors at every opportunity in New York and Philadelphia. In 1966 he studied under Donald "Doc" Reinhardt in Philadelphia where he learned Doc's "pivot" program which taught him how to pivot his trumpet to achieve different sounds.
During his tenure at the Naval School of Music he served as a staff member. He was honorably discharged in Sept, 1966 under condition he attend the world famous big band jazz program at North Texas State University, Denton, Texas.
David left North Texas State after one semester and moved to Chicago in 1967 where he took lessons from one of the best trumpet teachers, Renold Schilke, and he worked there making hand-made trumpets as well. Renold Otto Schilke (1910–1982) was a professional orchestral trumpet player, instrument designer and manufacturer. He founded and ran Schilke Music Products Incorporated, a manufacturer of brass instruments and mouthpieces. He played professionally with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Schilke allowed David to practice from 4 to 6 hours a day after work in his shop. During this time he went on the road with various bands including playing with Si Zenter at the Roosevelt Hotel in Chicago. Simon Hugh "Si" Zentner (June 13, 1917 in New York City – January 31, 2000 in Las Vegas, Nevada) was an American trombonist and jazz big-band leader. Zentner played in the bands of Les Brown, Harry James, and Jimmy Dorsey.
His tour career with Andy Williams began on June 24, 1968 in a 26- piece band that was on tour across the U. S. featuring Andy Williams and Roger Miller. After this tour on December 10, 1968 they played at the Sheraton Hotel and Somerset in Boston for the $1,000 a couple dinner-dance and $100 a couple cocktail party for the fundraiser to help defray the cost of the campaign expenses for the late Robert F. Kennedy, brother of President Kennedy. Among those in attendance were astronaut John Glenn and the Kennedy Clan. In a letter David wrote to his parents on Dec. 15, 1968 he states: "The job in Boston for the Kennedy's is the highest I've ever played for. We played at a dance of which I've enclosed some clippings from the Boston papers. The dinner only cost $1,000 a couple to get in. Then we went to a cocktail party where we played. That was only $100 a couple. I can't tell you what a thrill it was just being there much less playing for it. When I went back stage before we were to go I found Ted Kennedy, his wife, Joan, Rose Kennedy, John Glenn, Rafer Johnson, and Dave Powers, just to name a few I recognized. I couldn't believe I was amongst all those famous people. I was very impressed and as you know me it takes quite a bit to impress me anymore."
He returned to North Texas State University where his goal was to play lead trumpet in the best band, the One O'Clock Lab Band, which he accomplished the second semester of 1969 under the direction of Leon Breeden. Breeden also remained his friend until his death in 2010. He was recorded on the album of the Lab Band in a Spring Concert in April, 1969. After declining a tour with Woody Herman, during the Spring and Summer of '69 he opened the Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas with the Jerry Gray Orchestra. Some of the headliners he backed were Lou Rawls, Patti Page, Paul Anka, Ella Fitzgerald and Carol Channing.
In 1970 he left North Texas and moved to Las Vegas where he began his writing career as composer/arranger under Wes Hensel, whom he had crossed paths with as a 13 year old teenager in Chanute. Hensel was the lead trumpet player for the Les Brown Band for years. He was also a very well known music arranger. At the age of 25, one afternoon, he believes under recommendation of Hensel, he received a phone call from the lead trumpet player, Gene Goe with Count Basie Band, requesting he play with the band at the Blue Room of the Tropicana Hotel along with singer, Joe Williams. They were featured in an article in the Las Vegas Sun on March 13, 1970 "Basie-Williams Combine at Trop" with a photograph in which David is shown playing in the back row. Below the photo "The great Joe Williams wails the blues while Count Basie's most explosive force in jazz unwinds three times nightly in the Blue Room of Hotel Tropicana. In Dave's memorabilia he records those performing: Count Basie, piano; Norman Keenan, bass; Harold Jones, drums; Joe Williams, singer; Freddie Green, guitar; Eric Dixon, tenor sax; Dave Oyler, trpt; Bob Platter, AS; Gene Goe, trpt; Bill Atkins, Las; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, TS, Cecil Payne, BariSx; Grover Mitchell, Bill Hughes, Melwanzo (bones); Sonny Cohn, Wayne Reeves, trpt. David stated "that was the BEST band I ever played with. The band cooked so hard that Joe Williams would stand in the wings while the band played it's set and "groove" with us before he came on. One night I asked him about it and he told me, "Man! You cats were cooking so hard I just had to come out and groove wih ya." From that time on the doors to the music world seemed to just magically open (for me)."
After playing with Basie he free-lanced in Las Vegas working with acts of Paul Anka, Ella Fitzgerald, Steve Allen to name a few. In his spare time he formed several big bands using the best musicians Vegas had to offer. The musicians union recognized the musical quality of his bands and gave him money to play concerts in various hotels of which he had tape recorded.
He also studied composing/arranging under Billy Byers, trombonist/arranger, who had played with Buddy Rich, Benny Goodman, Charlie Ventura and Teddy Powell and arranged for Count Basie and Frank Sinatra. They remained very close friends until Byers death in 1996 and David is highly honored by Byers son, Bryant, as his mentor.
Other tutors in his writing career included, James Hill, Trombone player, Composer and Arranger. Three time Emmy Award winning American music arranger who worked extensively in his earlier years as a brass player in big bands. He created many arrangements for the Les Brown And His Band Of Renown, and Albert Harris (13 February 1916 – 14 February 2005) who worked most of his life in Hollywood as an orchestrator, arranger and composer for several of the big Film Studios and for such pop icons as Barbra Streisand, Roberta Flack and Cher.
In 1972 he moved to Los Angeles and walked into the office of Frank Sinatra's lead writing team who was producing the TV show of Julie Andrews Hour where he worked for 3 years which led to his eventual work for Sinatra. David had inquired of other musicians what his chances were of working on the show and he was told to forget it and that other people were waiting in the wings to get on that show, but he decided to give it a shot. He writes "When I presented my writing work to the contractor in Frank Sinatra's office, he looked at it and asked me if I had my pens with me. I told him no. He said to go home and get 'em and come back. I started that afternoon and worked as member of the writing staff until it went off the air three years later. I worked many other jobs during that three years and became known as one of the best that L.A. had to offer. I worked all of the major studios; Paramount, Universal, MGM, 20th Century Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC and god knows who else for 8 years." He worked on TV shows, major motion pictures, stage productions, TV movies, records, and live performances for many legendary musicians and movie stars. Some of his arrangements on records were for Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Wayne Newton, Liza Minelli, Jackie DeShannon, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Helen Reddy, Roger Williams, Earth, Wind, and Fire, The Carpenters, Miracles, Cher, Smokey Robinson, Bill Withers, Gene Pitney, Barbara Streistand, Dianna Carroll, Andy Williams and Frankie Valli. Some of the major motion pictures included his scores for the first Star Trek movie in 1979, Airplane, Urban Cowboy, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, New York New York for Sinatra, and Spiderman. A few of his TV shows included Julie Andrews, Donny & Marie Osmond, Bob Hope, 52nd Annual Academy Awards, Dallas, Cass Elliott, Star Wars Holiday Special, Hollywood Diamond Jubilee, Dick Clark, American Film Institute Awards, The Tonight Show, Golden Globe Awards, Les Brown, Entertainment Hall of Fame, Rolling Stone and TV Tribute to Neil Simon. Stage productions included $600 and a Mule, Hallelujah Hollywood, Ice Follies, Barbary Coast, Pal Joey, Casino de Paris, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers and the Sound of Music. He was involved in live performances at all the major hotel-casinos in Las Vegas and elsewhere. The list is too long to include all that he worked on but some were Buddy Rich, Sarah Vaughan, Elvis Presley, The Letterman, Carol Channing, Vikki Carr, Fifth Dimension, Doc Severinson, Shirley McClaine, Tom Jones, Della Reese, Burt Bacharach, Bing Crosby, Glen Campbell, Charlie Rich, Johnny Mathis, Art Garfunkel, The Supremes, Sammy Davis, Jr, Paul Anka, Englebert Humperdink, Frank Sinatra and Nelson Riddle.
After this exhaustive work in L. A. he moved back to Las Vegas in 1980 and started practicing his trumpet again and played with various bands. He again returned to L. A. in 1982. David writes " the musicians weren't too happy about seeing him return because when he left he didn't tell anyone where he was going. He was told they had people all over the country looking for him and things were pretty tight for a couple of years until Sinatra rehired him. He worked on numerous albums including the Triology album being one of them. One of Sinatra's people pulled him aside and let him know that his disappearing act wasn't "cool" and don't do it again. Sinatra didn't like not knowing where he was."
After his over 30 year career in the music industry he moved to Florida to live by his parents. He never quit doing something that involved music and maintained his professional contacts all over the country. His love of music continued all of his life and his diligence to learn all he could about the greatest musicians of all-time propelled his career and made him one of the top composers and arrangers. He writes to a classmate in 2004 "When I was growing up many of the people that were my idols became my peers." Before his death he donated his works to his family members and fellow musicians. The rest of his collection has been donated to one of his Navy buddies and fellow musician, Vaughan Wiester of Columbus, Ohio. This collection will eventually end up in the Ohio State University so that future musicians can learn from his contributions to the music industry. Many of the materials will also be used at the School of Music, University of Louisville, Kentucky, for further education of their current students.
His graveside service at the Havana Cemetery, Havana, Kansas, south of Independence, will be held on May 12, 2018 at 2 p.m. under the direction of the Independence American Legion Honor Guard and Riders. His mother, Edith Thompson Oyler's service will also be held at the same time. Their cremains were laid to rest beside her parents, Athal Eugene Thompson and Nellie Edith Click. David was preceded in death by his parents, and one niece, Tracy Ann Wilson of Louisville, Ky. He is survived by two sisters, one brother, many nieces and nephews and many great nieces and nephews.
After David and Edith's services are completed the Humboldt Camp #9 of the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War will conduct an honorary service for Edith's grandfather, William Reginald Click, a Kansas pioneer, who served in the 10th Kentucky Cavalry during the Civil War. The family invites all friends and family to attend and anyone interested in the Civil War.