- Father, with Ginny Powell, of Bruce Boyd Raeburn.
- Began his career as a band leader at a restaurant during the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. For the remainder of the decade, he led a society dance band. In the 1940s, he re-organized his outfit, first playing swing (1940-1944), then more innovative jazz (1944-1950). Top musicians in the band included Dizzy Gillespie, Trummy Young, Oscar Pettiford, Sonny Berman, Al Cohn, Dodo Marmarosa, Ralph Flanagan, Don Lamond and Johnny Mandel.
- Attended the University of Chicago, where he led a campus band.
- Eventually left the music industry to pursue business interests in New York and the Bahamas.
- His band had three themes: "Man with a Horn", "Raeburn's Theme" and "Over the Rainbow".
- Was considered a 'progressive' leader whose innovative, but non-danceable music was appreciated by the critics but less so by the public.
- Suffered a setback in 1944, when most of the band's instruments and library were destroyed in a fire at New Jersey's Palisades Amusement Park.
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