[4] The premier performance was by the New York City Symphony, directed by Leopold Stokowski, with Dorsey as soloist, broadcast over WNYC on February 15, 1945.
In 1944 Shilkret and Phil Moore wrote a dance arrangement of the third movement of the concerto entitled "Specie Americano."
The liner notes to the recording say that the dance arrangement was "first performed 1946 by Paul Barron with the CBS Symphony Orchestra.
Shilkret wrote "The Crazy Cool Musician in Between," with lyrics by Art Sydney, as a popular song based on the third movement of the concerto.
However, a July 21, 1953, air check of the female vocal group, the Metrotones, singing the song on WHAS-AM (CBS) is in the Shilkret archives.
An August 19, 1954, press release announced, "WNBC concert Sunday, August 29, 1954, directed by [Le]Roy Shield, will play the first radio performance of Maria del Carmen (Granados) and Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra by Nathaniel Shilkret, with Neal di Biase, formerly first trombonist with the NBC Symphony, as soloist.” Granados biographer Walter A. Clark confirms that the concert was broadcast.
An April 19, 1961, letter from noted trombonist Davis Schuman, to whom Shilkret had given a copy of the original version of the concerto to check, before sending it to Dorsey, that the piece was playable, asks whether a band arrangement had been published.
First, Nathaniel Shilkret's grandson, Niel Shell, had begun organizing the Shilkret archives and eventually was able to make all the written music available to Free, who transcribed over a period of several years the full orchestra, band and chamber orchestra arrangements using Sibelius music notation software.
Free's progress in reviving the concerto was the subject of a cover story in the quarterly magazine of the International Trombone Association.
Pugh immediately started looking for venues to perform and or record the concerto and provided material assistance in proofreading the transcribed scores.
His first success came when he convinced Skitch Henderson to direct the 21st century “re-premier” of the concerto, with his New York Pops Orchestra, featuring Pugh as soloist, at Carnegie Hall.