Trivia

Brother of Larry Elgart.

He began playing trumpet as a teenager and was playing professionally by the age of twenty.

During the 1940s he was a member of bands led by Raymond Scott, Charlie Spivak, and Harry James, occasionally finding himself alongside his brother Larry.

By the end of the50's, Elgart quit performing, preferring to handle the business aspects of the band.

He and his brother formed the Les & Larry Elgart Ensemble in 1945, hiring Nelson Riddle, Ralph Flanagan, and Bill Finegan to write arrangements. The union was short-lived, however, due to the Musician's Union strike and the waning of swing jazz's popularity. The ensemble broke up in 1948.