John Graas was one of the first jazz French horn soloists. Born in Dubuque, Iowa, on March 14, 1917, he began playing the French horn in high school. In his teens he won a national contest that took him to Tanglewood, where he played under Koussevitsky, learning the fundamentals of classical music. In 1942 he became a member of the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. After a period in the Army (1942-1945) and stints with the Cleveland Orchestra and Tex Beneke's big band, Graas' got his first high-profile gig, playing with Stan Kenton's Innovations Orchestra (1950-1951). Later, he settled in Los Angeles and worked as a studio musician in addition to being used on West Coast jazz dates by Shorty Rogers and others. As a composer, Graas sought to combine together jazz and classical music, and recorded fairly regularly as a leader during from 1953-1958. He died of a heart attack at the age of 45 in April 1962.