BUTLER TWP — Jim Cunningham, 70, is a man with a horn. Born and raised in Butler Township, his expertise with a jazz trumpet has taken him around the country and among the famous.

He keeps getting gigs even with a rather demanding second career as a self-employed development consultant, working on fundraising capital campaigns for entities like Butler Memorial Hospital.

That, and his position as vice president of the board of the Jean B. Purvis Community Health Center is what Cunningham considers his day job.

He's been a jazz trumpeter since he graduated from Butler High School in 1966.

“I graduated with Jim Pugh, a trombonist, and Bill Purvis, who played the French horn and is now on the faculty at Yale,” said Cunningham. “And the music department at Butler High had Sal Signorino. He was a musical genius. He could play and teach.”

He started playing the trumpet when he was in fourth grade.

“Between fourth grade and seventh grade, I would practice but I was just going through the motions,” he said. “Then my grandmother came to live with us and she knew my heart wasn't in it,” he said. “She told me 'I will pay you 50 cents an hour any hour you practice.' By eighth grade I was practicing four hours a day. I made a lot of money and I got really good.”

Cunningham said he decided to become a professional horn player, going to Duquesne University on a trumpet scholarship and playing in the Duquesne Brass Ensemble.

“I did a year at Duquesne,” said Cunningham. “But I didn't want to be a music teacher. I was fortunate to be accepted in the Navy School of Music as lead trumpet.”

“The Northwest Navy Band was based in Seattle. It was a great experience,” he said. “We traveled all over the East Coast and played 300 gigs a year, playing big band jazz.”

He left the Navy in 1971 and came back to Butler.

Between playing gigs at places such as the old Holiday House in Monroeville, Cunnigham eventually earned a degree in social work. “I was working for small nonprofit agencies. I had to raise money to keep them going,” he said.

John Righetti, who took over from Cunningham as the medical center's director of development, credits the trumpeter with helping start the center.

Righetti said, “In 2008, he worked with the founders to come up with the seed money to get the clinic up and running. He's been involved in fundraising both locally and internationally.”

Even while setting up medical centers and finding money for nonprofits, Cunningham still took to the stage at night. “I continued to play. I was hired to play in circus bands, when the Ice Capades came to town, I did lots of shows at the Syria Mosque,” said Cunningham.

He helped found the Musicians' Concert Band 37 years ago and still plays with it. He has played with numerous bands in Pittsburgh including the Buddy Lee Orchestra.

“There was a lot of music back then, a lot more live music. Buddy Lee worked five days a week, plus I was teaching private lessons,” he said. That was a steady job for 35 years, he added.

Cunningham said he's played with the Jim and Tommy Dorsey bands and played for Nelson Riddle's son, Chris, among others.

“I've been a commercial player. I can be called on to play any job,” he said.

You have to have been a quick study and able to find time to practice on your own, he said.

“When you play all those shows, they don't pay you to rehearse,” he said. “They pay you to come in, sit down and play the charts.”

These days, Cunningham said, opportunities for professional musicians are much rarer. “There are only 15 to 20 big-time orchestras in the country. The competition is incredible for jobs for not much more than minimum pay,” he said.

While he's made a life in music, Cunningham said he's almost died on the job.

“I had a heart attack at a wedding gig when the bride was walking down the aisle as I was playing 'The Trumpet Voluntary.' I got short of breath, and it felt like somebody was gripping me around the throat,” he said.

“I stayed to play the service's recessional,” he said before being taken by ambulance to the hospital where he had a quadruple bypass. “I still play quite a bit and still practice with the Butler Symphony which has become a wonderful musical organization,” he said. “I encourage kids to see live music and watch famous players.”