Buddy DeFranco: Biography

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• Perry Robinson
• Eddie Daniels
• Jimmy Hamilton
• Artie Shaw
• Don Byron
• John Carter
• Jimmy Giuffre

• Benny Goodman
• Artie Shaw

• Hal McKusick
• Phil Nimmons
• Dodo Marmarosa
• Rolf Kühn
• Dexter Payne
• Gianluigi Trovesi
• Eddie Daniels

• Pete Jolly

• Charlie Christian
• Arthur Schwartz
• Gus Kahn
• Howard Dietz
• Ira Gershwin
• Oscar Hammerstein II
• James Van Heusen

Birth Name:

Boniface Ferdinand Leonardo De Franco

Born:

Feb 17, 1923 in Camden, NJ

Genres:

Jazz Music, Bop Jazz Music

Decades Active:

1950's|1960's|1970's|1980's|1990's|2000's

Artistic Quality

High

Cultural Impact

High

Popularity

High

Ratings Guide

Buddy DeFranco is one of the great clarinetists of all time and, until the rise of Eddie Daniels, he was indisputably the top clarinetist to emerge since 1940. It was DeFranco's misfortune to be the best on an instrument that after the swing era dropped drastically in popularity and, unlike Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, he has never been a household name for the general public.

When he was 14 DeFranco won an amateur swing contest sponsored by Tommy Dorsey. After working with the big bands of Gene Krupa (1941-42) and Charlie Barnet (1943-44), he was with TD on and off during 1944-48. DeFranco, other than spending part of 1950 with Count Basie's septet, was mostly a bandleader from then on. Among the few clarinetists to transfer the language of Charlie Parker onto his instrument, DeFranco has won a countless number of polls and appeared with the Metronome All-Stars in the late '40s. He recorded frequently in the 1950s (among his sidmeen were Art Blakey, Kenny Drew and Sonny Clark) and participated in some of Norman Granz's Verve jam session. During 1960-63 DeFranco led a quartet that also featured the accordion of Tommy Gumina and he recorded an album with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers on which he played bass clarinet. However work was difficult to find in the 1960s, leading DeFranco to accept the assignment of leading the Glenn Miller ghost band (1966-74). He has found more artistic success co-leading a quintet with Terry Gibbs off and on since the early '80s and has recorded through the decades for many labels.

- Scott Yanow, All Music Guide