DeFranco, Buddy (actually, Boniface Ferdinand Leonardo)

DeFranco, Buddy (actually, Boniface Ferdinand Leonardo) , clarinetist; b. Camden, N.J., Feb. 17,1923. He took up the clarinet at the age of 12 (in Philadelphia) and was classically trained. He attended the Mastbaum Vocational School, where his classmates included Joe Wilder, John LaPorta, Johnny Coles, and Red Rodney. Upon hearing Benny Goodman, DeFranco became interested in jazz; he has said his other influences were Artie Shaw, Art Tatum, and from the mid-forties, Charlie Parker. He can be heard making use of poly tonal ideas by the late 1940s, and has said that Parker gave him credit for Parker’s innovations in this area. Early in his career DeFranco was faulted by some for an over-technical, cold sound and approach, but the ideas and energy in his playing have always proved him a jazz musician of the first order. During the 1940s, he worked with many leading jazz bands, sometimes doubling on alto, including Gene Krupa (1941–42), Charlie Barnet (1943--44), Boyd Raeburn, and Tommy Dorsey (1944–46). From 1950–51, he played with the Count Basie septet. He organized his own big band (1951) and quartet (from 1952 on; at various times with Art Blakey, Kenny Drew, Milt Hinton, Sonny Clark, Eugene Wright, and Tal Far low). In 1955 he settled in Calif., and used Don Friedman in his quartet for gigs around L.A. and a tour that came to N.Y. In the early 1960s, he led a quartet with accordionist Tommy Gumina. He led the Glenn Miller Orch. from 1966 to 1974; then resumed touring on his own. In the 1980s, he worked frequently with Terry Gibbs and guitarist Joe Beck. His quintet toured the U.K. in 1985. In 1950–51 he appeared with Basie in several film shorts, and in four of them he appears onscreen. In a different short film with Billie Holiday, Marshall Royal is seen but his music was reportedly dubbed by DeFranco because the producer or perhaps the director (Will Cowan) didn’t want to show an interracial band and left DeFranco, the only white, off camera.

Discography

A Bird in Igor’s Yard (1949); Buddy DeFranco with Strings (1952); King of the Clarinet (1952); Mr. Clarinet (1953); Progressive Mr. DeFranco (1953); With Tatum (1953); Cooking the Blues (1955); Buddy DeFranco Meets the Oscar Peterson Trio (1956); Jazz Tones (1956); Odalisque (1956); Bravura (1957); Buddy De-Franco Wallers (1957); Closed Session (1957); Generalissimo (1957); Cross-Country Suite (1959); Presenting the Buddy DeFranco-Tommy Gumina Quartet (1961)Kaleidoscope (1962); Polytones (1963); Tommy Gumina Quintet (1962); Blues Bag (1964); Girl from Ipanema (1964); Free Sail (1974); Buddy DeFranco (1977); Like Someone in Love (1977); Waterbed (1977); Mr. Lucky (1982); On Tour: U.K. (1983); Bom to Swing! (1988)Holiday for Swing (1988); Garden of Dreams (1989); Chip off the Old Bop (1992).

Bibliography

John Kuehn and Arne Astrup, Buddy DeFranco: A Biographical Portrait and Discography (New Brunswick, N.J., 1993).

—Lewis Porter/Matthew Snyder