Al Casey (jazz musician)

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Al Casey (center) with Denzil Best (left) and John Levy right, New York, around 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Albert Aloysius Casey , called Al Casey , (born September 15, 1915 in Louisville , Kentucky , † September 11, 2005 ) was an American jazz guitarist .

Act

Casey first received lessons on the violin and played the ukulele before he discovered and learned his actual instrument - the guitar . He played with Fats Waller in his bands from 1934 to 1943 , and he is the only guitarist with "Fats" recorded. He also played with Teddy Wilson , Mezz Mezzrow , Lionel Hampton , Coleman Hawkins , Earl Hines , Mildred Bailey , Billie Holiday (until 1944), Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter (1946).
While on Fats Waller's records he could only be heard on the acoustic guitar, from the 1940s onwards he almost exclusively used the electrically amplified version of this instrument.

In 1973 Casey recorded a duo record with guitarist Billy Butler as a "comeback" .

Since 1981 Casey was a member of the Harlem Blues & Jazz Band , which was particularly successful in Europe and toured there frequently. Over the years this band varied in line-up, but Casey remained a permanent member of this combo when he was over 80, which included rhythm-and-blues tenor saxophonist Bubba Brooks in the late 1990s . This band consisted of long-time "veterans" of swing music or jazzy rhythm and blues and was therefore highly regarded by fans of these genres.

In 2005 Al Casey succumbed to colon cancer .

Guitar style

Casey was committed to swing and the swinging blues . He was a pick player who played full guitars and - from the late 1980s onwards - semi-resonance guitars made by Gibson . Like many guitarists of his generation, he was shaped by his idol Charlie Christian . As a busy studio musician, he not only played swing, but also rhythm and blues as a member of the King Curtis Band, of which he was a member from 1957 to 1961 . When he turned to soul , he was able to do justice to this style himself.

Others

Albert Aloysius Casey is not identical to the approximately 20 years younger white American guitarist Al Casey , who was active in the rock 'n' roll studio music scene of the 1950s and early 1960s and was frequently used by producer Lee Hazlewood and the musician Sanford Clark is associated.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Schmitz: The guitar in jazz. Supplementary considerations on JE Berendt's article. In: Guitar & Lute. Volume 5, Issue 1, 1983, pp. 82-84, here: p. 83.
  2. ↑ Alexander Schmitz: The guitar in jazz. Supplementary considerations on JE Berendt's article. P. 83.
personal data
SURNAME Casey, Al
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Casey, Albert Aloysius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Louisville, Kentucky , USA
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 2005