Johnathan Zell (born November 24, 1947) is an American musician, best known as a trumpeter from The Lawrence Welk Show, a musical, variety-show television series.
[1] Zell was born at Fort Benning, a United States Army post located southeast of the city of Columbus, Georgia.
[clarification needed] After completing high school, Zell played for the Freddy Martin and Russ Morgan bands before he got his draft notice.
Zell was asked to do a television commercial for U.S. Army recruiting and part of the job was to do an interview for the Welk show and to play trumpet for the band.
From 1968 until the television series ended in 1982, Zell was one of The Lawrence Welk Show's most popular musicians and was often featured in trumpet solos, including "At the Cross", "Hot Lips" and "A String of Pearls".