Results for "Buddy DeFranco"

Coltrane's Progeny: Giant Steps for Late Beginners

by Richard J Salvucci
January 16, 2022

For many listeners, the name John Coltrane is synonymous with the tune “Giant Steps." Whether or not you happen to agree with the proposition that this was the “greatest" or most important composition Coltrane ever recorded—for some, it would be “My Favorite Things," and for still others, “A Love Supreme." This is not an attempt, largely ...

Lee Morgan & Ulysses Owens Jr.

by Joe Dimino
September 19, 2021

From one of the most powerful drummers in jazz today who is has released a big band album, we start the 717th Episode of Neon Jazz with Ulysses Owens, Jr. and a tune off his latest CD Soul Conversations. As is the case with all Neon Jazz shows, we trace the history of influences for each ...

Norman David: Forty-Year Wizard of The Eleventet

by Victor L. Schermer
August 4, 2021

A few years ago, a musician friend suggested I go hear a band that was playing at a place in Bella Vista, Philadelphia, a neighborhood with a significant jazz history (violinist Joe Venuti and guitarist Eddie Lang lived there and are honored with several plaques and a mural) -but not much current music to speak of. ...

Jazz Musician of the Day: Buddy DeFranco

February 17, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Buddy DeFranco's birthday today! Buddy DeFranco has the unprecedented distinction of winning twenty Downbeat Magazine Awards, nine Metronome Magazine Awards, and sixteen Playboy All-Stars Awards as the number one jazz clarinetist in the world. Buddy is generally credited with leading the way for jazz clarinetists from the exciting era of swing ...

Susie Meissner: I Wish I Knew

by C. Michael Bailey
September 8, 2020

Over the past decade and three previous recordings, Philadelphia-based vocalist Susie Meissner has crafted an intelligently conceived and thoughtfully paced survey of the Great American Songbook. Meissner's considerations of the standard jazz repertoire, in concert with pianist John Shaddy's sturdy arrangements and educated performance manner, have emerged, evolving from chaste and reverent beginnings, into rich and ...

Dial "S" for Sonny

by C. Michael Bailey
May 20, 2020

Pianist Sonny Clark was culturally marginalized in much the same way as his contemporary Elmo Hope—both heroin-addicted jazz musicians in the 1950s: at the time, and romantically, a cliche. Both pianists have been sorely lumped into the “Bud Powell school of bop piano" which superficially may seem accurate until one considers the evolutionary continuum of jazz ...

New Faces - New Sounds

by C. Michael Bailey
May 12, 2020

In the early 1950s, Blue Note Records introduced new artists in the label's series New Faces -New Sounds. It highlighted such young artists as Horace Silver (1952); Lou Donaldson (1952); Elmo Hope (1953); and Frank Foster (1954). All of these recordings were released as part of Blue Note Record's 5000 Modern Jazz Series, all on 10-inch ...

Frank Tiberi: The Thundering is Still Heard

by Jim Worsley
May 7, 2020

The term “ninety-two years young" is a bit cliché, but if the shoe fits (oops, another cliché). Saxophonist Frank Tiberi (pictured above playing with saxophonist and long time friend George Garzone to the left) spoke with the verve and energy of a much younger man. He got excited, as if being back in the moment, when ...

The Shearing Sound That Wasn't

May 2, 2020

In 1948, George Shearing and Buddy DeFranco kicked around the idea of forming a quintet. With Shearing's block chords and Buddy's bop clarinet along with their speed, they figured they'd knock out audiences. They performed together with bassist John Levy and drummer Denzil Best at the Clique Club, which would become Birdland a year later. But ...

Buddy DeFranco

Born: February 17, 1923

Buddy DeFranco has the unprecedented distinction of winning twenty Downbeat Magazine Awards, nine Metronome Magazine Awards, and sixteen Playboy All-Stars Awards as the number one jazz clarinetist in the world.

Buddy is generally credited with leading the way for jazz clarinetists from the exciting era of swing to the exhilarating age of bop. Along the way he has set the example for all jazz musicians for technical brilliance. Improvisational virtuosity and creative warmth. He is one of the most imaginative clarinetists playing today.

Born in Camden, New Jersey, Buddy was raised in South Philadelphia and began playing the clarinet at age nine. By age fourteen he had won a national Tommy Dorsey Swing contest, and appeared on the Saturday Night Swing Club, sharing the spotlight with Gene Krupa. He was soon discovered by Johnny "Scat" Davis and began his road career with him in 1939. He joined Gene Krupa in 1941, Ted FioRito and Charlie Barnet 1942-43, Tommy Dorsey 1944-45, Boyd Raeburn 1946, Tommy Dorsey again in 1947-48. In 1950 he joined the famous Count Basie Septet.Buddy was appointed leader of the Glenn Miller Orchestra 1966-1974. Since then he has resumed his jazz career and has done countless clinics: Tri-State Festival, Stan Kenton Clinics, North Texas State Teachers College, Clinician and Soloist with the N.O.R.A.D. Band and Air Men of Note. Buddy has brought his clarinet and jazz groups to many famous clubs. His concert appearances include Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Ravinia Park with Tony Bennett, Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, Kool Jazz Festival, Aurex Jazz Festival in Japan, Bern Festival in Switzerland, Radio Cologne with Bill Holman and the Radio Cologne Orchestra, Dutch Radio with Rob Pronk & Metropole Orchestra, European Tours, the Far East, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, South Africa, and Argentina ... wherever good jazz is played!