Mel Wanzo
Melvin "Mel" Wanzo , also Melvin Wahid Muhammad , (born November 22, 1930 in Cleveland , Ohio ; † September 9, 2005 in Detroit , Michigan ) was an American jazz trombonist who played in the Count Basie Orchestra from 1969 to 1980 and thereafter played in the Basie Ghost Band .
Mel Wanzo studied at Youngstown University in Youngstown (Ohio) up to his bachelor's degree in 1952. He then played in the US Army in a big band under Cannonball Adderley and accompanied rhythm and blues singers such as Ruth Brown and Big Joe Turner , before studying music again at the Cleveland Institute of Music . In the 1960s he played in the big bands of Woody Herman and 1966-1968 in the by Ray McKinley led Glenn Miller Band . From 1969 he was a member of Count Basie's orchestra , where he stayed until 1980. In the early 1980s he played in the big band Juggernaut by Frank Capp and Nat Pierce and was then a member of the Count Basie ghost band under Thad Jones , Frank Foster and Grover Mitchell until the 1990s .
He can be heard as a soloist, for example, on The Left-hand Corner in Count Basie Live in Japan (Pablo 1978).
literature
- Daniel Zager: Wanzo, Mel , in: Barry Kernfeld (Ed.): New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Macmillan 1994
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wanzo, Mel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wanzo, Melvin (full name); Muhammad, Melvin Wahid |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz trombonist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 22, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cleveland , Ohio |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 9, 2005 |
| Place of death | Detroit , Michigan |