Joe Marsala
Joseph Francis "Joe" Marsala (born January 4, 1907 in Chicago , Illinois , † March 4, 1978 in Santa Barbara (California) ) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist (alto, tenor), big band leader and song composer of oldtime jazz and swing .
Live and act
Marsala taught himself to play the saxophone, but studied clarinet with a classical musician. Partly with his brother Marty , a drummer and trumpeter, he played in dance halls and speakeasies in Chicago (at times he was also a member of Harold West's Territory Band ). In 1929 and 1933 he played with Wingy Manone and at times with Ben Pollack . In 1935 he moved to New York, where he played with Manone at Hickory House on 52nd Street . After Manone's departure to Chicago in 1936 he played there with his own "Joe Marsala Orchestra" (also called "Joe and Adele Girard-Marsala Orchestra"), which he played with his wife, harpist Adele Girard (1913-1993, marriage 1937) There were interruptions until 1948. Their band signature tune was Singing the Blues .
Leonard Feather wrote that they did more to break the racial barriers in jazz bands during their Sunday jam sessions at Hickory House in the late 1930s than Benny Goodman did at the same time . In 1945 he also recorded with Dizzy Gillespie . Recordings of the Marsala band exist from 1939 to 1942 (e.g. Decca 1941). Marsala recorded at this time under the names "Joe Marsala and his Delta Four", "Joe Marsala and his Chosen Seven" and "Joe Marsala and his Chicagoans". The band initially included Eddie Condon , Joe Bushkin and Red Allen . At times, also played Buddy Rich , Shelly Manne (in 1940 for Dave Tough came), guitarist Carmen Mastren , Marty Marsala (the trumpet), Bobby Hackett , Roy Eldridge and Max Kaminsky in temporarily extended to big band orchestra. In 1945 he made sextet recordings for Black & White and Musicraft Records .
From the end of the big band era around 1945, the number of opportunities to perform decreased; Marsala lived in Colorado from 1949 to 1953. In Aspen he wrote a musical that was also performed in Denver. In 1954 he returned to New York and founded a music publisher Beatrice Music . He wrote songs a. a. for Frank Sinatra and Patti Page . His hits include “Little Sir Echo” (which he also sang in his big band with his wife), “Don't Cry Joe” (for Sinatra), “And so to sleep again” (for Patti Page). At the end of the 1960s he played again with his wife Adele Girard (on the harp and on the piano) in clubs.
Web links
Lexigraphic entries
- Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler: Reclams Jazzführer (= Reclams Universal Library. No. 10185/10196). Reclam, Stuttgart 1970, ISBN 3-15-010185-9 .
- Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .
- Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Marsala, Joe |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Marsala, Joseph Francis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th January 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chicago , Illinois |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 4th 1978 |
| Place of death | Santa Barbara (California) |