Donald Gale Lanphere (June 26, 1928[1] – October 9, 2003) was an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist, known for his 1940s and 1950s work, and recordings with Fats Navarro (in 1948), Woody Herman (1949), Claude Thornhill, Sonny Dunham, Billy May, and Charlie Barnet.
[1] Lanphere briefly studied music at Northwestern University in the 1940s,[1] but moved to New York City as a member of Johnny Bothwell's group to become part of the bebop jazz scene.
[1] After his release from jail, he worked in his family's music store in Wenatchee, where he met Midge Hess.
[1] Lanphere was mostly inactive musically throughout most of the 1960s,[1] but began performing in the Seattle area after becoming a born again Christian in 1969, at which time he also stopped using drugs and alcohol.
In his later years, Lanphere was a jazz educator in the Pacific Northwest, giving lessons out of his home in Kirkland, Washington.