John Bunch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dick Sheridan and John Bunch (2007)

John Bunch (born December 1, 1921 in Tipton , Indiana , † March 30, 2010 in Manhattan , New York ) was an American jazz pianist .

Live and act

Bunch grew up in Tipton, Indiana, a small rural community, and studied piano with George Johnson, a jazz pianist. By the age of 14, he was playing with adult bands in central Indiana.

During the Second World War he was deployed in the Air Corps as a bomber pilot on a B17 Flying Fortress machine. He and his ten-man crew were used for bombing raids over Germany; his plane was shot down in November 1944 and John Bunch was captured by Germany. After the war he wanted to study music, but was refused. At Indiana University, Bunch then majored in linguistics.

He graduated in 1950 and then worked in factories and as an insurance agent, in 1956 he went to Los Angeles , where he found acceptance and recognition in the jazz scene of the time. Bunch first played with Georgie Auld and Jimmy Rowles , who later recommended him to Woody Herman . In 1958 John Bunch moved to New York , where he played with Eddie Condon and in the bop formation of Maynard Ferguson in 1958 and Urbie Green in 1959. During this time he recorded with Ferguson, played with other smaller bands such as Carmen Leggio and his own trio, in 1960 with Rolf Kühn . In 1961, Bunch worked at Buddy Rich , then at Gene Krupa (until 1964) and with Zoot Sims and Al Cohn (1961/1962). He also went on a tour to the USSR with Benny Goodman , which he later reported on in Jazz for the Russians - To Russia with Jazz , and toured the USA and Mexico in 1963 with his own formation.

From 1966 to 1972 Bunch worked for Tony Bennett as a pianist and musical director. In the 1970s he also worked for Benny Goodman. In the mid-1970s he recorded his first records under his own name, including a highly regarded album with compositions by Kurt Weill . In the 1980s and 1990s he often played with Scott Hamilton or Warren Vaché . He also had his own trio formations with which he recorded, for example with the New York Swing Trio founded in 1989 with Bucky Pizzarelli and Jay Leonhart , but also with British musicians, as he had been in Great Britain for a long time since the 1990s.

Despite his advanced age, John Bunch was musically active to the end; in 2006 he performed with his quartet at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival .

Discography (selection)

  • John's Bunch (Famous Door, 1975)
  • John Bunch Plays Kurt Weill , 1975 ( Chiaroscuro Records , 1991)
  • Solo ( Arbors Records , 1996)
  • A Special Alliance (Arbors Records, 2002)
as a sideman
  • Woody Herman: Woody Herman '58 ( Verve Records , 1958)
  • Maynard Ferguson: The Complete Roulette Recordings of the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra , 1958-1962 (10-CD box, Mosaic Records , 1994); Bunch on CD 1, 1958
  • Buddy Rich / Max Roach: Rich Versus Roach ( Mercury Records , 1959)
  • Gene Krupa / Buddy Rich: Burnin 'Beat (Verve Records, 1962)
  • Benny Goodman: Benny Goodman in Moscow ( RCA Victor , 1962)
  • Tony Bennett: Tony Makes It Happen! ( Columbia Records , 1967)
  • Al Cohn / Zoot Sims: Easy as Pie , 1968, Live at the Left Bank series (Label M, 2000)
  • Scott Hamilton: Swinging Young Scott ( Famous Door , 1977)
  • Warren Vaché: Midtown Jazz ( Concord Jazz , 1982)
  • Bucky Pizzarelli: 5 for Freddie (Arbors Jazz, 2007)

Lexical entries

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ allaboutjazz.com John Bunch , article by Laurel Gross, January 11, 2008. Retrieved March 23, 2010
  2. ^ Terence Ripmaster: Mel Bay presents Bucky Pizzarelli: a life in music . Mel Bay Publications, 1998. ISBN 0-786-63315-8 , p. 98
personal data
SURNAME Bunch, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Tipton , Indiana , USA
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 2010
Place of death Manhattan , New York