Dodo Marmarosa

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Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa (born December 12, 1925 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ; † September 17, 2002 there ) was an American jazz pianist.

Life

Marmarosa was a musical child prodigy and had a classical piano training before switching to jazz. He got his nickname Dodo as a child because of his relatively large head. He also taught himself jazz alongside his schoolmate Erroll Garner . He made his debut at the age of fifteen as a member of the Johnnie "Scat" Davis Orchestra . In 1942 and 1943 he worked with Gene Krupa and Charlie Barnet , with whose band he made his first recordings. It was here that he first met Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker , central representatives of bebop . His virtuosity, trained in classical music, was very useful for the fast bebop pieces.

From 1944 he performed with Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw and recorded with Lester Young . He also played from 1945 with Boyd Raeburn (including in Boyd Raeburn meets Stravinsky ), Lyle Griffin , Tom Talbert and Lucky Thompson . Like Barney Kessel , he went to Los Angeles , where he worked as a sought-after studio musician and played with Parker, Lester Young, Teddy Edwards , Howard McGhee , Lionel Hampton and Wardell Gray , among others. a. on the well-known dial sessions of 1946/47 with Parker. In 1947 he recorded for Dial with his own trio, to which Harry Babasin belonged. Because of his poor health and personal reasons, he returned to Pittsburgh in 1948 with his family. He toured with Johnnie Scat Davis and Artie Shaw in 1949, played with the Lighthouse All Stars in Hermosa Beach in 1952 and with Charlie Spivak in 1953 , but then disappeared from the jazz world for most of the 1950s.

In between were a failed marriage and health problems. In 1954 he was drafted into the army. Because he could not cope there, he was temporarily hospitalized and treated with electric shocks, but then released in a mentally unstable condition. After that he made no attempt to return to the jazz scene and worked as a hotel pianist. In 1956, trumpeter Danny Conn persuaded him to return to clubs. In 1960 he got stuck on his way to California when a car broke down in Chicago , where he again drew attention to himself while playing in clubs. In 1962 he recorded the album Dodo's Back in Chicago (produced by Jack Tracy for Argo ), in the same year he played two records with Gene Ammons and with trumpeter Bill Hardman . After that he performed occasionally alternately in Chicago and Pittsburgh, most recently in 1968 in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Traveling musicians like Dave Brubeck , who asked about the bebop legend, were sometimes able to persuade him to perform. His final years were mentally ill (he had a potentially Parkinson 's tremor that went away while playing the piano) and suffering from diabetes at the VA Medical Center in Lincoln-Lemington (a home for Army veterans) where he worked for residents and occasional Visitors played a home organ.

In the 1990s and 2000s, his recordings were featured on several albums ( Dodos Bounce , 1991; The Chicago Sessions , 1995; Complete 'Dial' Sessions, 1996; Dodo Lives , 1997; Pittsburgh 1958 , 1997; A Proper Introduction to Dodo Marmarosa : Dodo's Dance , 2004) partly new, partly also published for the first time. In the 1940s in particular, he was outstanding as a pianist due to his excellent tone and independent playing according to the Jazz Rough Guide and made “most of his contemporary competitors, but unfortunately also his late work, look pale”.

Discography

literature

  • Fabian Grob on Dodo Marmorosa, Jazz Podium January 2003
  • Dieter Salemann & Fabian Grob: Flights of the Vout Bug. A guide to the recorded music of Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa . BearManor Media, Albany, Georgia 2009, ISBN 978-1-59393-337-1

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Ross Russell reports in his Parker biography (Knaur TB, p. 202) that he warmed himself up before sessions by playing Bach's two-part inventions at double the tempo
  2. ↑ He played a. a. in its Gramercy Five . Shaw called him the best pianist he ever had. At the same time, Shaw also speaks of the fact that Marmorosa has something of a completely innocent , to whom he tried in vain to bring closer to the realities of life and especially the jazz music profession. Quoted from Grob, Jazz Podium 2003
  3. ↑ Grob, loc. cit., leads u. a. a lack of self-confidence. Among other things, he thought his hands were too small. Ross Russell managed to persuade him to record in November 1947, but the session turned out to be very arduous. He needed 29 takes for five titles.
  4. ↑ When he was drafted around 1944, he was found unfit and then beaten up by sailors so that he was in a coma for 24 hours.
  5. ↑ According to Hardman's memories, these recordings were also difficult because of Marmarosa's introverted nature. Quoted in Grob, loc.cit.
personal data
SURNAME Marmarosa, dodo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marmorosa, Michael (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH September 17, 2002
Place of death Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania