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Frank Rosolino
Frank Rosolino will be remembered and respected throughout the contemporary jazz world for his mastery of the trombone, his uncanny ability to fit and work successfully with a wide range of musical ideas, and perhaps last but not entirely forgotten, his wit and capacity for comic entertainment. There has seldom been a time when any single aspect of this amazingly complex individual was submerged for any great length of time. He was always the superb performer, upfront individually as a musician or commercially as an entertainer.
Frank Rosolino was born in Detroit on August 20, 1926 and began taking trombone lessons in the eighth grade or about the time he was 14 years of age. Many of the traditional musical hurdles had already been "smoothed" out prior to his introduction to the trombone as a result of the guitar lessons he received from his father from the age of 9. However, proof as to his advancement on the trombone was obviously much in evidence long before he graduated from Miller High School in Detroit . He had auditioned and was accepted into the Cass Tech Symphony orchestra which drew its members from all over the city of Detroit and to be chosen was considered to be quite an honor.
Frank went into the army at the age of 18, evenually joined the 86th Division Band and went overseas to the Philippines. His two year stay in the army provided him with the opportunity to experience yet another kind of musical performance and added to the overall preparedness to fend for himself as a full fledged professional musician upon release from the service.
Rosolino's career started in earnest upon release from the Army in early 1946 and for the next several years he was to gain invaluable experience playing with a great variety of bands.....Bob Chester, Glen Gray, Gene Krupa, Tony Pastor, Herbie Fields, Georgie Auld, and with his own groups in Detroit . His first major break came when he was offered the jazz chair with the great Stan Kenton Band in 1952 and he was one of the featured soloists with Kenton through late 1954. However, following the breakup of that great jazz band he continued to record with the Kenton studio bands as late as March 30, 1955. Earlier he had joined the Howard Rumsey Lighthouse All Stars and appeared on his first recording with the All Stars in December of 1954.
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Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: In a Lighter Vein
by Jack Bowers
Stan Kenton was a man of many moods, as was his intrepid and popular orchestra, which endured until his passing in August 1979 and whose renown is kept alive even today by the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra. Kenton dons his carefree hat on In a Lighter Vein, an assortment of straight-ahead themes from the orchestra's jazz library, preserved in five concert performances from 1953-55 beneath the umbrella of NBC radio's All Star Parade of Bands. Original compositions ...
read moreFrank Rosolino / Carl Fontana: Trombone Heaven
by John Barron
Truly an unearthed gem, Trombone Heaven is a previously unreleased concert recording from 1978 at the Bayshore Inn in Vancouver, Canada, featuring the late slide legends Frank Rosolino and Carl Fontana. The spirited set is anchored by the swinging rhythm section of pianist Elmer Gill, bassist Torban Oxbol and drummer George Ursan.
Given the loose, jam-session nature of the set, the tunes are lengthy, allowing ample room for both Rosolino and Fontana to stretch out and display their unmatchable technique. ...
read moreFrank Rosolino: The Last Recording
by Andrew Velez
Born into a musical family, trombonist Frank Rosolino had little formal training. During high school years in Detroit he played with Milt Jackson; as Diane Armesto, Rosolino's former manager (and to whom we owe thanks for preserving this previously unreleased set) observes in her liner notes, Perhaps most influential of all was the street education Frank received sitting in at the Mirror Ballroom...where other to-be renowned musicians also congregated, such as the Jones Brothers Thad, Elvin and Hank.
read moreFrank Rosolino: The Last Recording
by Jack Bowers
Trombonist Frank Rosolino, as brilliant musically as he was troubled personally, led this studio date on August 1, 1978, roughly four months before he took his own life--as well as that of one of his two sons--and seriously wounded the other. Whatever demons haunted Rosolino, they were never visible when he was playing; what came out of his horn was pure genius, trombone artistry that was technically and musically in a class by itself. No one has ever mastered the ...
read moreFrank Rosolino: Turn Me Loose
by David Rickert
Those only familiar with Frank Rosolino’s trombone work may be surprised to find out that he also dabbled in vocals as well. Rosolino was highly regarded as a trombonist, especially on the West Coast scene, but seldom recorded as a leader; Free For All on the Specialty label is probably his best known work. Turn Me Loose features Rosolino doing double duty as soloist and vocalist, a la Chet Baker, and one could judge solely by the cover that this ...
read moreFrank Rosolino: Free For All
by David Rickert
First the bad news: Frank Rosolino took the life of his two children and then shot himself in 1978 after a lifelong battle with depression. The good news: in 1959 he recorded Free For All a wonderfully spirited set that belies the psychological problems that plagued the trombonist throughout his life. Rosolino spent the first part of career honing his chops in the Stan Kenton band, like many of the West Coast musicians of the time. He developed an agility ...
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