Tony Rizzi

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Trefoni "Tony" Rizzi (born April 16, 1923 in Los Angeles , † June 2, 1992 in Huntington Beach , California ) was an American jazz guitarist .

Live and act

Rizzi learned the violin as a child and then switched to the trumpet. At the beginning of his career he played guitar with Boyd Raeburn , with whose orchestra he made his first recordings in 1945. From 1946 to 1953 he was a member of the Les Brown swing orchestra ; in addition, he worked in the following years a. a. on recordings by Earle Spencer , the Delta Rhythm Boys , Frank Comstock , the Mills Blue Rhythm Band , Freddie Slack , Tommy Dorsey and Harry James . In the 50s he also worked with Dave Pell and Lucy Ann Polk , with Abe Most , Zoot Sims , Earl Bostic and with the pianist Paul Smith , as well as with the studio orchestras of Ray Anthony , Billy May , Charlie Barnet , Marty Paich , Conrad Gozzo , Georgie Auld , Bobby Tucker , Russell Garcia , Maxwell Davis , Louie Bellson , Skip Martin , Milt DeLugg , Alvy West and Si Zentner .

Around 1954 he recorded his debut album Tony Rizzi Plays the Music of Frank Comstock ; Contributing musicians were Dick Nash (trombone), Ted Nash (woodwind), Rolly Bundock (bass) and Alvin Stoller . In the 1960s he was still working with George Roberts and the Mercer Ellington Orchestra; In 1967 he worked on Frank Zappa's album Lumpy Gravy . In 1973, he and four other guitarists organized a program of arrangements of Charlie Christian's compositions based on the transcription of his recordings with Benny Goodman . With a nine-member studio band, the album Play Charlie Christian was created in 1975 . a. Pete Christlieb (tenor saxophone), Tom Ranier (piano) and guitarists Tim May, Mike Rosati, Jimmy Wyble and Grant Geissman took part. In 1977/78 the productions Disco Pacific and Surfin 'Pacific followed ; In 1991 he recorded the album Rose Room: Joe Pass Meets Tony Rizzi's 5 Guitars with Joe Pass . In the field of jazz he was involved in 263 recording sessions between 1945 and 1991. a. as a studio musician also with Louis Armstrong / Ella Fitzgerald (1957), Anita O'Day , Heini Beau (1958), Plas Johnson (1959), Sammy Davis junior (1961), Pearl Bailey (1962), Dean Martin , Dinah Washington and Nana Simopoulos .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Obituary in the Los Angeles Times (1992)
  2. Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed May 14, 2017)