Dennis Dotson has been a professional trumpeter for over fifty years, having begun his career playing in Houston, Tx. while attending college at Sam Houston State College in Huntsville, Tx., where he studied trumpet with Kit Reid and Fisher Tull and composition with John Butler.  He has played in the house bands in Las Vegas and free- lanced in New York City and Houston, where he now lives. He was trumpet soloist in the Woody Herman and Buddy Rich big bands and as a small group player has performed alongside Joe Lovano, Joe Henderson, Marvin Stamm and David Liebman, among others, He has performed in big bands with such as Carl Fontana, Bobby Shew, Tom Harrell, and Kenny Wheeler. He is jazz trumpet instructor at the University of Texas at Austin and was formerly on the faculty at Houston Community College and the University of Houston. He has led several All-Region high school jazz bands and has been a guest soloist/ adjudicator/clinician at over forty high schools and colleges. He is very active as a trumpet player in jazz and commercial circles throughout the state of Texas, has performed with the Houston Symphony
Orchestra, and has been a sideman on numerous jazz recordings.