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Dodo Marmarosa
Born:
A piano wunderkind who was for about a decade one of the most sought-after pianists in the history of jazz, yet has remained in relative obscurity. Dodo was born Michael Marmarosa, on 6 December 1925, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After formal studies and gigging with local bands, in 1941, the Johnny "Scat" Davis Orchestra came to Pittsburgh with an opening for a piano player. Even as a kid, Marmarosa had a reputation in local jazz circles, and some local musicians suggested that Davis snatch up the young pianist, so he hit the road. He was 15.
After a few months, the orchestra broke up. But Marmarosa and a few others hooked up with Gene Krupa's band. He then joined Charlie Barnet's big band. During that time, the Barnet band recorded "The Moose" and "Strollin,' " the first of dozens of recordings Marmarosa would be part of over the next few years.
Forgotten Jazz Musicians On Their Centennial, Part 2:
by Larry Slater
As we look back on jazz history, we all have a tendency to focus on the giants: Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Miles Davis.Many other talented artists from the past decades have been forgotten, but many of their recordings have stood the test of time. The musicians featured in this hour were ...
Prescribing Jazz: A Top Ten
by Artur Moral
National Doctors' Day is celebrated unevenly across our mistreated planet. It is absent in most countries, while it is observed as a holiday in a few. Coinciding (in the United States and Australia) with this day of recognition for a vital profession, this article is especially directed to the entire jazz-loving medical community, focusing on six ...
Cedar Walton One Flight Down
by Thomas Conrad
They are thinning out: the ranks of pianists who can trace their lineage directly back to primary sources like J.J. Johnson, the early Jazz Messengers of Art Blakey, and the Jazztet of Art Farmer and Benny Golson. In the last few years, we have lost Tommy Flanagan, Mal Waldron, Roland Hanna, Dodo Marmarosa, Russ Freeman, Frank ...
Ahmad Jamal: In his Own Sense of Time and Place
by Josef Woodard
This interview first appeared in the Santa Barbara News-Press on October 2005. The introduction has been updated. For the late, great and uniquely poetic pianist Ahmad Jamal, who passed on at age 92 on April 16, 2023, easy descriptors never sufficed in capturing his particular magic. He was a classicist, a modernist, a minimalist ...
Backgrounder: Dodo Marmarosa — Dodo's Back!
Yesterday, I posted about pianist Craig Davis's new trio tribute to Dodo Marmarosa. I also promised you a fabulous Backgrounder album this week by Marmarosa. Well, why not today, since you probably still have Dodo on your in mind. Dodo's Back! is one of my favorites. It's elegant and pushy, with touches of George Shearing in ...
Craig Davis: Music of Dodo Marmarosa
Michael “Dodo" Marmarosa was a fascinating jazz pianist. Among the first pianists to master bebop in the mid-1940s, he had an accomplished, plush touch. As I wrote back in 2008, “Dodo was less aggressive than Bud Powell and more expressive and complex than Al Haig. He preferred a punctuating, full keyboard approach, developing ideas in the ...
Craig Davis: Tone Paintings
by Jack Bowers
The subtitle of pianist Craig Davis' second album, Tone Paintings, is “The Music of Dodo Marmarosa." For those who may be inclined to ask, “Dodo who?" the album offers a mini-biography of Pittsburgh-born Michael (Dodo) Marmarosa, an exceptionally talented pianist whose promising early career was cut short by the crushing weight of mental and emotional problems ...
Jon Hendricks: An Essential Top Ten Albums
by Peter Jones
Considering he reached the ripe old age of 37 before recording an album, Jon Hendricks' jazz legacy is remarkable. Although a singer, in his head he was more of an instrumentalist. When he improvised, he would imitate the tenor saxophone, the flute, the trombone, or the double-bass. His professional singing career lasted from 1932, when he ...
Cory Weeds: O Sole Mio! Music From The Motherland
by Jack Bowers
O Sole Mio!, the latest in a series of splendid albums by Canadian-bred saxophonist/entrepreneur Cory Weeds, is subtitled “Music from the Motherland"-- in other words, Italy, which, presumably, is Woods' ancestral home. Whatever the case, Woods' blue-chip quintet focuses for the most part on music born in Italy or written by Italian-Americans including Henry Mancini, Nino ...
