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Gene DiNovi

Gene (Eugene Salvatore Patrick) Dinovi. Pianist, composer, singer, b Brooklyn, 26 May 1928. He began his career as a teenaged bebop pianist in jazz clubs along New York's fabled 52nd Street and played for several bandleaders (Henry Jerome, Joe Marsala, Boyd Raeburn, Stan Hasselgard, and others) in the late 1940s. He recorded as a sideman to Benny Goodman (for Capitol), Brew Moore (Savoy), Aaron Sachs (Manor), Artie Shaw (Columbia), and Lester Young (Alladin) in this period. A popular accompanist with singers, DiNovi played in the early 1950s for Peggy Lee and Tony Bennett, and 1955-63 for Lena Horne, latterly on an intermittent basis.

While in Los Angeles at mid-decade with Lee, and again while working as a pianist and arranger for TV there during the 1960s, he studied composition and orchestration with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He also studied piano with Jacob Gimpel and conducting and composition with Maria di Bonaventura in Los Angeles during the 1960s. After his first visit to Toronto in 1971 as an accompanist to Carmen McRae, DiNovi made the city his home in 1972.

DiNovi has divided his career there between extended solo piano engagements at several of the city's more exclusive rooms (Charles One at La Scala and, later in later years, lounges at the Royal York, Sutton Place, and Four Seasons hotels) and studio work as an arranger and composer of incidental music, jingles, and film scores.

He starred in 1974 with the singer Jodie Drake on CBC (Toronto) TV's 'Gene and Jodie' and has presented programs and series about US popular song and songwriters on CBC radio (including seasons intermittently 1975-81 on 'The Morning Show' and its successor 'Morningside'), TV Ontario ('The Music Room,' 1980), and in concert.

DiNovi's own songs (to lyrics by Spence Maxwell, Bob Comstock, Johnny Mercer, and others) include 'Brand New Day' and 'I Can Hear the Music' and have been recorded by Maurice Chevalier, Doris Day, Percy Faith, Peggy Lee, and Nancy Wilson. DiNovi also has composed The Scandanavian Suite No. 1 (Sweden) (recorded in 1958 for Roulette), a Divertimento in Blue (for Benny Goodman), Hommage à Satie, and several other classical pieces. In 1984 he began touring in Canada with the clarinetist James Campbell, playing mixed programs of jazz and classical music.

DiNovi's recordings during his Canadian years include Softly As I Leave You (1977, PediMega Records # 1) of piano solos, Each Day Is Valentine's Day (1984, PediMega Records #2) and Ruby & Gene Play George & Ira Gershwin (1984, PediMega Records #3) of duets with the US cornetist Ruby Braff, and Precious Moment (1990, Marshmallow 00204) with the Japanese musicians Kohji Toyama (bass) and Yukio Kimura (drums).

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Album Review

Gene DiNovi: Souvenir: Gene DiNovi Plays The Music Of Benny Carter

Read "Souvenir: Gene DiNovi Plays The Music Of Benny Carter" reviewed by Mike Neely


Souvenir is an elegant solo piano recording that pays tribute to one of the great jazz composers of our time, Benny Carter. The pianist, Gene DiNovi, has chosen ten of Carter’s compositions, ranging from the 1930s to the 1990s, and has woven each in a subtle tapestry of long, graceful lines. DiNovi’s left hand is one of the wonders of modern jazz piano, his is low-key, melodic approach that far surpasses traditional accompaniment. At times, DiNovi seems to be weaving ...

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Interview

Interview: Gene DiNovi

Interview: Gene DiNovi

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

After my post on pianist Gene DiNovi in March, I included my email with hopes that Gene or his family would reach out so I could interview him. Joe Lang put me in touch with his daughter, who put me in touch with his wife and Gene. We had a lovely Zoom conversation. Gene is a legend. He started recording in 1944, the same year Dizzy Gillespie pulled him out of the audience at the Spotlite Club on New York's ...

Video / DVD

Gene DiNovi, Today and Yesterday

Gene DiNovi, Today and Yesterday

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Gene DiNovi is a gorgeous jazz pianist. One of the early New York players in the mid-1940s who had figured out bop, DiNovi at 15 was pulled up to the bandstand at the Spotlite Club on 52nd Street by Dizzy Gillespie in 1944 to play bop behind him when his pianist went missing. Then Charlie Parker came out to join, and DiNovi held his own. DiNovi played in some amazing bands with exceptional musicians in the late 1940s and then ...

“I played piano with Bird and Diz.  I accompanied Lena, Peggy, Raquel, Barbra, one Dinah (Shore, but not Washington), two Franks (Sinatra and Zappa) and a Tony (Bennett).  I recorded with a Pres (Lester Young) and a King (of Swing), Benny Goodman. I wrote songs with Johnny Mercer (Have a Heart) and composed an extended piece for an entire archipelago (The Scandinavian Suite). I learned lessons from a Duke (Ellington) and a Count (Basie).  And I came oh-so-close to performing for a Vladimir (Horowitz)….”

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