Conte Candoli

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Conte Candoli
Birth name Secondo Candoli
Born July 12, 1927
Origin Mishawaka, IN, USA
Died December 14, 2001
Genre(s) Jazz
Instrument(s) Trumpet
Years active 1943–2001
Associated acts Candoli Brothers

Secondo "Conte" Candoli (July 12, 1927December 14, 2001) was an American jazz trumpeter based on the West Coast of the US. He played in the big bands of Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Dizzy Gillespie, and in Doc Severinsen's NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show. He played with Gerry Mulligan, and on Frank Sinatra's TV specials. He also led his own band called Supersax, a sax quintet with rhythm section and trumpet, that played Charlie Parker covers.

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[edit] Career

It was the summer of 1943, before his junior year at Mishawaka High School in Mishawaka, IN, that Secondo "Conte" Candoli first sat in with Woody Herman's First Herd. After graduation in 1945, he joined the band full-time where he sat side-by-side with brother Pete Candoli in the trumpet section.

Conte immediately went on the road, where he stayed for the next ten years, with Woody as well as with the legendary bands of Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman and Dizzy Gillespie.

In 1954, after leaving Stan Kenton, Candoli formed his own group with sidemen Chubby Jackson, Frank Rosolino, and Lou Levy, playing all the top jazz rooms in the country. He soon moved to Los Angeles to join the Lighthouse All-Stars with Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, and Bob Cooper, and was with them for four years.

His Dizzy-inspired playing brought him many performing and recording opportunities with major jazz names and the top names in show business, such as Gerry Mulligan, Shelly Manne, Terry Gibbs, Teddy Edwards, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., and Sarah Vaughan.

Candoli's long relationship with the Tonight Show began in 1967 and he became a permanent fixture in the orchestra's trumpet section when Johnny Carson moved the show to Burbank in 1972. He performed with the group at the 1988 Wichita Jazz Festival.

Conte has played all over the world with Stan Kenton, his own group, Gerry Mulligan, the Lighthouse All-Stars, and others. He has appeared in many motion pictures with various orchestras and worked in all of Frank Sinatra's TV specials. For many years he preferred to stay in California where he could do the Tonight Show, take all the studio work he wanted, and do occasional concerts and clinics. He ventured to Kansas in 1986 as a WJF All-Star with Jerome Richardson, Barney Kessel and Monty Alexander at the 1986 Wichita Jazz Festival.

After Johnny Carson’s retirement in 1992, he traveled occasionally with Doc Serverinsen, but still enjoyed his solo playing.

Conte was inducted into The International Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997


[edit] Band memberships

Band Years
Woody Herman's First Herd 1943 Summer
1945
Chubby Jackson’s Fifth Dimensional Jazz Group
Stan Kenton 1948
Charlie Ventura’s “Bop For The People” 1949
Stan Kenton 19511954
Terry Gibbs Dream Band
Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band 19601961
Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All-Stars 19561960
Supersax
The Tonight Show 19671972 Guest
19721992 Regular
Candoli Brothers 19571962

[edit] Solo recordings

Album Release
Sincerely, Conte Candoli 1954
Groovin' High: Conte Candoli, Vol. 2 1955
West Coast Wailers 1955
Rhythm Plus One 1956
Conte Candoli Quartet 1957
Mucho Calor 1957
Little Band, Big Jazz 1960
Conversation 1973
Old Acquaintance 1985
Sweet Simon 1992
Meets the Joe Haider Trio 1994
Portrait of a Count 1966
Candoli Live 2002
The Complete Phoenix Recordings, Vol. 1 2002
Fine and Dandy

[edit] Personal life

Conte was the younger brother of trumpeter Pete Candoli.

He was born in Mishawaka, Indiana, on July 12, 1927 and died at the age of 74 on December 14, 2001 at Monterey Palms Convalescent home in Palm Desert, Ca., after a long battle with prostate cancer.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Official Candoli Brothers Site

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