Jack Costanzo - Afro Cuban Jazz North-Of-The-Border

Jack James Costanzo was born in Chicago (September 24, 1919), to Matteo and Virginia Sances Costanzo, both immigrants from Italy. A composer and drummer, Costanzo is best known for having been a bongo player, and was nicknamed "Mr. Bongo". He visited Havana three times in the 1940s and learned to play Afro-Cuban rhythms on the bongos and congas.

Costanzo started as a dancer, touring as a team with his wife before World War II. After his discharge from the Navy, he worked as a dance instructor at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Latin band leader Bobby Ramos heard Costanzo playing bongos in a jam session and offered him a job. Throughout the 1940s, Costanzo worked with several Latin bands, including a revived version of the Lecuona Cuban Boys, Desi Arnaz, and Rene Touzet.

Costanzo toured with Stan Kenton from 1947 to 1948 and occasionally in the 1950s, and played with Nat King Cole from 1949 to 1953. He also played with the Billy May Orchestra, Peggy Lee, Danny Kaye, Perez Prado, Charlie Barnet, Pete Rugolo, Betty Grable, Harry James, Judy Garland, Patti Page, Jane Powell, Ray Anthony, Martin & Lewis, Frances Faye, Dinah Shore, Xavier Cugat, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, and Eddie Fisher.

Costanzo formed his own band in the 1950s which recorded and toured internationally. Many Hollywood stars studied bongos with him, including Marlon Brando, Rita Moreno, Carolyn Jones, Hugh O'Brian, Keenan Wynn, Van Johnson, Tony Curtis, Betty Grable, Vic Damone, James Dean, and Gary Cooper.

Costanzo was in retirement until 1998 when he decided to make a comeback and in 2001 recorded Back From Havana under the Ubiquity Records umbrella. This album featured the likes of Black Note's Gilbert Castellanos, Steve Firerobing and the Panamanian singer Marilu. In 2002 he released another album with the same cast called Scorching The Skins this time he also added Quino from Big Mountain. Costanzo has continued to tour and perform in California and abroad.

Costanzo died of complications from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm at his home in Lakeside, California, on August 18, 2018, aged 98.

***

This album represents a milestone for me. Since my days with Stan Kenton and Nat King Cole my aim has been to make acceptable the Conga and Bongo Drums as percussion instruments for all types of music.

To think as a Jazz musician, after having worked exclusively with Latin type orchestras previous to the Kenton crew, and to curb the natural instinct to exploit the instruments so they fit in with all the different types of music and rhythms, and still not interfere with the already established format of a Jazz rhythm section were two of the most important adjustments.

I think on most of these records an example is made, whereby a Conga Drum is used for Jazz and still does not make the listener think in terms of Latin music. We do have a Mambo in the album, however, because I still love to play Latin style arrangements.

Having been the first Bongo man to join a Jazz group was thrilling, but the drawback was in having no idea what to play that would fit the so-called swing or Jazz Bands. Fortunately, I was given complete freedom in the Kenton organization and was able to experiment. At first I used Bongos only for effects — then gradually felt my way thru to a position where I was noticeably helping to change the sound of the rhythm section without getting in the way.

On the solo Drum number, which is titled "Mambo Costanzo", I took the liberty of playing what I felt. These are the sounds I hear when I play, influenced, of course, by what I’ve heard and know of Cuban and African music.

The record is simply a Drum-vocal expression — a one man jam session for my own pleasure.

This is my first recorded efforts with my own group and I think the spirit of how the tunes are played represents the attitude of musicians playing for the sheer love of playing.

*Jack Costanzo (liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - Bottlabud

(Holman)

2 - Satin Doll

(Ellington)

3 - Mambo Costanzo

(Costanzo)

Side 2

4 - Yukon Mambo

(Costanzo)

5 - Maggie

(P.D.)

6 - G & J Blues

(Wiggins, Costanzo)

Jack Costanzo (bongos) with

#1, #2:

Rolf Ericson (trumpet), Herbie Steward (alto sax), Bill Holman (tenor sax), Gerald Wiggins (piano), Joe Comfort (bass), Lawrence Marable (drums).

#4. #5, #6:

John Anderson (trumpet); Herbie Steward (alto sax); Tom Brown (tenor sax); Gerald Wiggins (piano); Jack Coughlan (bass); Al Bartee [#4. #5], Jackie Mills [#6] (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, December 17, 1954.

 

Gerry Wiggins - Relax And Enjoy It!

Some jazz —like the music of Gerry Wiggins on this album— can be listened to at several levels, depending on your inclination. It can be background music to conversation, reading, experiments in the time-lag of afterglow, research projects in mood-induction and lovesmanship. It can also be —if you wish it— the kind of jazz which requires digging and which rewards digging with something new each new time you dig it hard. 

Gerry Wiggins is the kind of jazz musician who is unspectacular, who is not a brash innovator nor in any sense a flamboyant character. Yet it is musicians like him who provide the great body of jazz music with its virtues. 

It may be most indicative of his value that he has been one of the very best accompanists to come out of jazz, in a class with Jimmy Jones and Bobby Tucker. Being an exceptional accompanist for singers requires the sort of sensitivity, the type of warm and helpful personality, the courage to sublimate that personality momentarily in the interests of a good performance, that is inherent in all jazz artists. It is an integral part, really, of all good jazz, almost without exception, that 

mutual aid and sensitivity to the other artists should be the basis for playing. No really good jazzman is without it and all good accompanists have it to a high degree. I guess what I am trying to say here is that Gerry Wiggins on this album, and every time I have had the pleasure of hearing him in person, plays in a manner which I find totally pleasing. I have had the album some time now before writing this essay. I have found it rewarding to play at any hour of the day or night and surrounded before and after by any kind of music. It can stand on its own at all times; isn’t that the mark of good music of any kind? 

If you want lyricism, it is here; if you want an introduction to the blues to regenerate your feelings, it too is here. If you like to swing without stomping, you can. If you want to let the background of your conversation be lightly filled with pleasant sounds, this, too, is possible. And if you want to sit with your ear glued to the speaker and listen to the music and to nothing else until there is no thought in your mind but the impressions and sounds of the lines of Gerry Wiggins and Joe Comfort and the rhythms of Jackie Mills, this can be your pleasure. *Ralph J. Gleason (liner notes)* 

Side 1

1 - Narcissus

(Ethelbert Nevin)

2 - Frankie and Johnny

(Traditional, arr.Gerry Wiggins)

3 - One For My Baby

(Mercer, Arlen)

4 - Lady Is A Tramp

 (Rodgers, Hart)

Side 2

5 - Serenade In Blue

(Warren, Gordon)

6 - My Heart Stood Still

(Rodgers, Hart)

7 - Just Squeeze Me / Satin Doll

(Duke Ellington)

8 - Blue Wig

(Gerry Wiggins)

Gerry Wiggins (piano), Joe Comfort (bass), Jackie Mills (drums).

Recorded at Contemporary's Studio, Los Angeles, October 10, 1956.