Conte Candoli

Conte Candoli
Background information
Birth name	Secondo Candoli
Born	(1927-07-12)July 12, 1927 Mishawaka, Indiana, U.S.
Died	Palm Desert, California, U.S.
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Trumpet
Years active	1943–2001
Associated acts	Candoli Brothers The Tonight Show Band
Website	www.candoli.com

Secondo "Conte" Candoli (July 12, 1927 – December 14, 2001) was an American jazz trumpeter based on the West Coast. 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 Starring Johnny Carson. He played with Gerry Mulligan, and on Frank Sinatra's TV specials. He also recorded with Supersax, a Charlie Parker tribute band that consisted of a saxophone quintet, the rhythm section, and either a trumpet or trombone.

Early life

Conte was the younger brother of trumpeter Pete Candoli. He was born in Mishawaka, Indiana, on July 12, 1927. During the summer of 1943, before his junior year at Mishawaka High School in Mishawaka, Indiana, that Secondo "Conte" Candoli first sat in with Woody Herman's First Herd.

Music career

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 playing brought him performing and recording opportunities with 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, California 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 Severinsen, but still enjoyed his solo playing.

Conte was inducted into The International Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997. He died of cancer at the age of 74, in Palm Desert, California.

Band memberships

Candoli playing at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay, California, 1988

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	1951–1954
Terry Gibbs Dream Band	–
Gerry Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band	1960–1961
Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars	1956–1960
Supersax
The Tonight Show	1967–1972 Guest 1972–1992 Regular
Candoli Brothers	1957–1962

Discography

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
Candoli Brothers	1970s
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

With Chet Baker

• Chet Baker Big Band (Pacific Jazz, 1956)

With Louis Bellson

• Big Band Jazz from the Summit (Roulette, 1962)

With Elmer Bernstein

• The Man with the Golden Arm (Decca, 1956)

With Bob Cooper

• Coop! The Music of Bob Cooper (Contemporary, 1958)

With Sonny Criss

• Sonny's Dream (Prestige, 1968)

With Teddy Edwards

• Feelin's (Muse, 1974)

With Maynard Ferguson

• Dimensions (EmArcy, 1955)
• Maynard Ferguson Octet (EmArcy, 1955)

With Clare Fischer

• Manteca! (Pacific Jazz, 1965)
• Thesaurus (Atlantic, 1969)

With Gil Fuller

• Night Flight (Pacific Jazz, 1965)

With Stan Getz

• West Coast Jazz (Norgran, 1955)

With Dizzy Gillespie

• The New Continent (Limelight, 1962)

With Shelly Manne

• Shelly Manne & His Men Play Peter Gunn (Contemporary, 1959)
• Ruth Price with Shelly Manne & His Men at the Manne-Hole (Contemporary, 1961) with Ruth Price
• Live! Shelly Manne & His Men at the Manne-Hole (Contemporary, 1961)
• Shelly Manne & His Men Play Checkmate (Contemporary, 1961)
• My Fair Lady with the Un-original Cast (Capitol, 1964)
• Manne–That's Gershwin! (Capitol, 1965)
• Boss Sounds! (Atlantic, 1966)
• Jazz Gunn (Atlantic, 1967)
• Perk Up (Concord Jazz, 1967 [1976])

With Joe Newman

• Salute to Satch (RCA Victor, 1956)

With Shorty Rogers

• Martians Come Back! (Atlantic, 1955 [1956])
• Way Up There (Atlantic, 1955 [1957])

With Lalo Schifrin

• Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts (RCA Victor, 1965) with Paul Horn
• More Mission: Impossible (Paramount, 1968)
• Mannix (Paramount, 1968)

External links

• Conte Candoli at AllMusic
• Conte Candoli discography at Discogs
• Conte Candoli at the Internet Movie Database
• Conte Candoli at Find a Grave