Al Belletto

Biography
News

Raised in New Orleans, red-hot saxophonist/clarinetist, Al Belletto was able to make the transition from traditional jazz to swing to bop. While working towards his undergraduate degree, Belletto led his own band. He then began playing around his New Orleans hometown with Sharkey Bonano, Louis Prima and Wingy Manone, plus The Dukes Of Dixieland. He started his own group in 1952 and recorded several albums on Capitol Records from that year on, later working in several clubs. Belletto's sextet was absorbed into Woody Herman's orchestra for a 1958 state department tour of South America and once again a year later.

Passings: DeFranco, Benford, Belletto

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
December 28, 2014

The past seven days have seen the deaths of three musicians who came to prominence as young men and had long careers in the swing, bebop and post-bop eras. Buddy DeFranco, who in the 1940s was the first to successfully adapt the clarinet to the complexities of bebop, died the day before Christmas at age 91. In recent years he and his wife Joyce lived in Panama City, Florida. DeFranco was the principal influence on virtually every major clarinetist who ...
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Music Industry

Al Belletto: 'Sounds and Songs'

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
September 1, 2014

In the 10-inch jazz LP era between 1952 and 1955, record companies were hungry for arrangers who could write for small groups. With the longer recording format, labels needed to fill out albums without breaking the bank on large bands. So they sought out arrangers who could make 5 to 10 instruments swing and sound twice that size. The best of these small-group arrangers included Dave Pell, Lennie Niehaus, Gigi Gryce, Bill Holman, Manny Albam and Gerry Mulligan. One name ...
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