Al Porcino trumpet, 1923, New York
After studying music/trumpet in New York, Al Porcino's first professional gigs began in 1943 with Georgie Auld, Louis Prima, Tommy Dorsey, and Gene Krupa. His first of several periods with Stan Kenton's orchestra were in 1947 and 1948. From 1949 to 1954 Al played for Chubby Jackson and Woody Herman, with whom he toured Europe before he re-joined Kenton for two more years, 1954 and 1955. Porcino played for Pete Rugolo, Elliot Lawrence, and Charlie Barnet in the years 1955 to 1957. In late 1957, Al made his home in Los Angeles where he and Med Flores formed The Jazz Wave Orchestra. The orchestra stayed together, performing and recording until 1959. Al spent the next three years working with the Terry Gibbs band until the late '60s, when he began working with popular singers and did extensive studio work. During 1969 and 1970 Al worked with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra at the Village Vanguard in New York. Al Porcino is an experienced big band lead trumpeter, well known for the brilliant tone and his ability as a section leader.
Zutty Singleton. drums, 1898, Bunkie, La
Zutty, who bridged the gap from dixieland to swing, played in several important early New Orleans bands, such as those of Papa Celestin and Louis Russell. In the early '20s he worked in Fate Marable's riverboat bands with which he cut his first recordings around 1924. By 1927 Zutty had moved to Chicago and began working with Doc Cook and Jimmy Noone. The recordings he made with Louis Armstrong in 1928, and in a trio with Jelly Roll Morton and Barney Bigard the next year, made Singleton very well known in the jazz community. His style of playing was sufficiently flexible and modern to keep him active during the developing swing period of the 1930s. In later years Zutty did most of his playing as a freelance musician in New York. He either had dixieland bands of his own or played with such traditional and mainstream musicians as Slim Gaillard, Eddie Condon, and Bobby Hackett. During the first half of the '50s he toured Europe, playing with people like Mezz Mezzrow, Hot Lips Page, and Bill Coleman. He worked for several years at Ryan's in New York, from 1963 until he was incapacitated in 1970 by a stroke. Zutty was among the first jazz drummers to use the sock cymbals (a forerunner of the hi-hat), and wire brushes. He actually pioneered many familiar patterns in jazz drumming; the use of rim shots, ride patterns on the top cymbal, unchoked cymbal crashes, and offbeat accents on the bass drum, all of which later became familiar features with most jazz drummers. Singleton was famous for his imaginative breaks and fills, and is considered important by several generations of drummers who followed much of his technique. He died in 1975.
Sidney Bechet, soprano sax, 1897, New Orleans, LA
Sidney grew up in a musical family where all of the children played instruments. Sidney took up the clarinet as a young boy, studying with several different teachers, but was principally self- taught. By about 1910 he was playing with local bands, and at the age of 16 he left New Orleans to wander ( a habit that stayed with him until middle age), playing in touring shows and carnivals throughout the South and Midwest. In 1917 he arrived in Chicago and began working with bands led by Freddie Keppard and King Oliver. In 1919 Sidney was discovered by Will Marion Cook, who was about to take his large concert band, The Southern Syncopated Orchestra, to Europe. This was an odd situation because the orchestra played mainly concert music in fixed arreangements with little improvising, but featured Bechet, who could not read music. The Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet referred to Bechet as an "artist" of genius. In London he purchased his first soprano sax and learned to play it. It soon became his instrument of choice. With the strong- voiced soprano sax, Sidney was able to dominate jazz ensembles. Before long he left the Southern Syncopated Orchestra and began playing and touring with a small ragtime band led by Benny Peyton. He traveled constantly between Europe and the U.S., and in 1924 worked with Duke Ellington's orchestra for several months. Duke's band was going through a transitional period at this time, and Bechet was able to lead the band further towards swinging jazz. After leaving Ellington, Sidney opened his own club, the Club Basha, in Harlem. He hired Johnny Hodges to front the house band. During 1924-25 Sidney made a series of recordings with Louis Armstrong which became important in the history of New Orleans jazz, and influenced many musicians of the era. There was a period in the early '30s when Bechet dropped into obscurity, playing when he could find work. In the mid '30s Sidney and Tommy Ladnier formed a group called the New Orleans Feetwarmers, but it was short-lived. Sidney began working as a tailor for s short time, but returned to music around 1938, regaining some popularity. In 1949 he returned to Europe for the first time in 20 years and received much adulation, and in 1951 settled in France where he lived out the remainder of his years. As one of the very best jazz musicians of the post World War One period, Sidney exerted a strong influence on northern musicians, and is regarded today as one of the consummate artists produced by this music. Because he traveled so much, he never developed a large popular following as did Armstrong and Ellington. He was frequently bristly and difficult, and hard to get along with. He was expelled from both England and France for fighting, and spent almost a year in jail in Paris. He certainly was not temperamentally suited to make the compromises necessary to achieve popular success. Bechet mastered the soprano sax to such a degree that few other jazz musicians were willing to challenge him. Until John Coltrane came along and renewed the popularity of the instrument in the 1960s, Bechet had the field virtually to himself. Because Bechet was such a solitary figure, his influence on jazz tended to be indirect, exercised through Ellington, Hodges, and Buster Bailey. Sidney Bechet died in 1959.
