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Al Porcino
Porcino began playing professionally in 1943, playing in many big bands of the 1940s and 1950s, including those of Georgie Auld, Louis Prima, Jerry Wald, Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, and Chubby Jackson. He played with Woody Herman in 1946, 1949-1950, and again in 1954. He also did two stints with Stan Kenton, in 1947-48 and 1954-55. In the 1950s he played with Pete Rugolo, Count Basie, Elliot Lawrence, and Charlie Barnet.
In 1957 he moved to Los Angeles and played in studios. While there he played in the Terry Gibbs Dream band between 1959 and 1962. In the 1960s he often played in orchestras backing vocalists, and also did time with Buddy Rich in 1968, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis in 1969-70, and Herman again, in 1972. In the 1970s he formed his own big band, who recorded behind Mel Torme in addition to their own work.
In the 1970s Porcino moved to Germany, leading big bands there through today. His ensemble played on one of Al Cohn's final recordings in 1987.
He died in Munich in 2013.
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Terry Gibbs Dream Band: Dream Band, Vol. 7: The Lost Tapes, 1959
by Angelo Leonardi
«Non credo che ci sia mai stata una band migliore di questa, compresa la mia». Mel Lewis espresse queste parole per la mitica orchestra che il vibrafonista Terry Gibbs guidò in California tra il 1959 e il 1961 e fu chiamata “Dream Band" per l'entusiasmo che suscitò tra i fortunati che l'ascoltarono dal vivo. Giudizi così perentori non vanno mai presi alla lettera ma ascoltando queste inedite registrazioni non li giudicherete troppo esagerati. Stan Kenton espresse simili opinioni ...
Continue ReadingTerry Gibbs: Dream Band, Vol. 7: The Lost Tapes, 1959
by Jack Bowers
In 1959, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs and his recently formed big band set up shop at the Seville, a Los Angeles nightclub owned by Harry Schiller. Many of those early sessions were taped, at Gibbs' request, by famed recording engineer Wally Heider before being left on a shelf and forgotten. After two weeks at the Seville, Gibbs and the band moved to a second club, the Sundown. The band was successful, drew large crowds, and was soon recording, first for Norman ...
Continue ReadingTerry Gibbs: Dream Band, Vol. 7: The Lost Tapes, 1959
by Richard J Salvucci
Someone once asked Terry Gibbs how it was possible that if you took his side men, or some subset of them, and put them together in another band, they never quite sounded as good. Gibbs replied, modestly, that it was all in the arrangers. He got the best arrangers, like Bill Holman, Marty Paich and Med Flory. Others did not. And so the story went. It would have been tempting to ask if, perhaps, Gibbs had ...
Continue ReadingStan Kenton and His Orchestra: In a Lighter Vein
by Jack Bowers
Stan Kenton was a man of many moods, as was his intrepid and popular orchestra, which endured until his passing in August 1979 and whose renown is kept alive even today by the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra. Kenton dons his carefree hat on In a Lighter Vein, an assortment of straight-ahead themes from the orchestra's jazz library, preserved in five concert performances from 1953-55 beneath the umbrella of NBC radio's All Star Parade of Bands. Original compositions ...
Continue ReadingFarewell, Al Porcino
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Al Porcino, a powerful lead trumpeter for several big bands, died on New Years Eve in Munich, Germany. He was 88. Porcino had lived in Germany since the late 1970s, frequently augmenting American bands touring in Europe, as well as leading his own large ensemble. A family member who reported his passing offered no information about the cause of death. After debuting in 1943 with Louis Prima when he was 18, Porcino played with swing bands led by Tommy Dorsey, ...
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Interview: Al Porcino (Part 3)
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Tell most big band trumpeters from the '50s that you dig jazz, and they'll likely correct you by saying that they didn't play jazz. A majority of musicians who played in the trumpet sections of prominent bands viewed themselves as highly skilled readers who added a particular flavor to the whole ensemble, not improvisers. Except, that is, the second trumpet, who usually played the jazz solos. Al Porcino was a first chair trumpeter, and his job was to lead the ...
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Interview: Al Porcino (Part 2)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
If you own a big band album from the post-war years, chances are Al Porcino is playing first trumpet on the recording. Al often was featured in that chair for his swinging leadership skills, the clarity of his playing, his sight-reading abilities and his knack for hitting screaming high notes. A trumpet section's job is to punctuate a big band arrangement, and the first trumpet always needs to be rock solid and distinct. Al spent much of the early and ...
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Interview: Al Porcino (Part 1)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Al Porcino is easily one of jazz's greatest living trumpet players. In addition to playing on 342 recording sessions since 1942, he is the last known surviving member of Charlie Parker's first strings date—Neal Hefti's recording of Repetition in December 1947. Al also has the distinction of having played first trumpet in nearly every major big band of the '40s, 50s, '60s and '70s—from Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman and Charlie Barnet to Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Gene Krupa, Chubby Jackson ...
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