Tuesday 9 April 2019

Sharkey Bonano born 9 April 1904

Joseph Gustaf "Sharkey" Bonano (April 9, 1904 – March 27, 1972), also known as Sharkey Banana or Sharkey Bananas, was a jazz trumpeter, band leader, and vocalist. His musical abilities were sometimes overlooked because of his love of being an entertainer; he would often sing silly lyrics in a high raspy voice and break into dance on stage. Being only 5' 4", loud, flamboyant, cocky and
arrogant and with Cavanaugh bowler hat perched on his head, he was the ultimate showman.

Bonano was born in the Milneburg neighborhood of New Orleans near Lake Pontchartrain. He grew up at Quarella’s, his brother-in-law’s dance pavilion. He was given a trumpet by Buddie Petit in 1917 and followed Petit, Joe Oliver, and Sam Morgan in brass band parades. In the early '20s, New Orleans native Sharkey Bonano played locally with the bands of Chink Martin and Freddie Newman, among others.

Sharkey learned how to read music after failing an audition in New York to replace Bix Beiderbecke in the Wolverines in 1924, but he did land a spot with pianist Jimmy Durante. The next year, he returned home to lead his own band. In 1927, he joined the famous Jean Goldkette Orchestra, which then featured Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer.

In 1928, he co-led the Melody Masters with Leon Prima on the steamer Greater New Orleans and later led a band at the Chez Paree near West End.After playing in California with Original Dixieland Jazz Band clarinetist Larry Shields, Bonano once again returned to New Orleans, where he stayed from 1930-1936.

 In 1936, Bonano worked with Ben Pollack before forming his own New York-based group, the Sharks of Rhythm, with which he recorded much of his finest work. Around that time, he also played sporadically with the ODJB. He spent several years in New York, where he recorded for the Brunswick label and began an association with Nick Rongetti, the owner of Nick’s in Greenwich Village, inaugurating a jazz policy there.

                     
                            

After World War II fueled by the New Orleans revival, he toured Europe, Asia, and South America, played residencies in Chicago and New York, and then was a regular on Bourbon Street in the New Orleans French Quarter, where his outgoing musical personality gained him a large following. 



On one New York stint, Arthur Rubinstein heard him play and then asked him to demonstrate his tone to the trumpet section of the new York Philharmonic. 

In 1949, he led his own groups and appeared at the Roosevelt Hotel's Blue Room and the Famous Door Bar and was active until the 1960s, when ill health forced him to retire shortly before his death on May 27, 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

(Edited from various sources mainly Wikipedia & AllMusic)

12/25/58 WNTA-TV Art Ford New Orleans Jazz Party, (filmed at WDSU-TV studio, New Orleans 8/11/58)   Sharkey Bonano (t) Percy Humphrey (t) Clement Tervalon (tb) Harry Shields (cl) Alphonse Picou (cl)  Eddie Miller (ts) Armand Hug (p,v) George Guesnon (b) Alcide Pavageau (b) Sherwood Mangiapane (b) Louis Barbarin (d)

1 comment:

boppinbob said...

For “Sharkey Bonano - Sharkey and His Kings of Dixieland” go here:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/v17ml9j593i0830/Sharkey_Bonano.rar/file

Disc 1
1. TIN ROOF BLUES
2. TAILGATE RAMBLE
3. THAT’S A PLENTY
4. SHINE
5. MUSKRAT RAMBLE
6. BUCKET GOT A HOLE IN IT
7. FAREWELL BLUES
8. HIGH SOCIETY
9. BOURBON STREET BOUNCE
10. OVER THE WAVES
11. PIZZA PIE BOOGIE
12. I’M SATISFIED WITH MY GIRL ('Yes She Do, No She Don't')
13. SHE’S CRYING FOR ME
14. SOLO MIO STOMP
15. SHARKEY STRUT
16. PECULIAR RAG
17. IN THE MOOD
18. CANDY BABY
19. THAT DA DA STRAIN
20. ECCENTRIC
21. TEMPTATION RAG
22. SOMEBODY STOLE MY GAL
23. THE EYES OF TEXAS ARE UPON YOU
24. CORRINE CORRINA
25. BASIN STREET BLUES
26. WEARY BLUES
27. I’M GOING HOME
28. WITH A PACK ON MY BACK

Disc 2

1. PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES
2. BANANA PEEL RAG
3. HUNGRY WOMAN
4. KIDDIN' WITH CHOPIN
5. NORTH RAMPART STREET MARCH
6. YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE
7. AUF WIEDERSEHN SWEETHEART
8. WAY DOWN YONDER IN NEW ORLEANS
9. BALLIN' THE JACK
10. MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME
11. FIVE FOOT TWO EYES OF BLUE
12. HOW'M I DOIN
13. DINAH
14. BILL BAILEY WON’T YOU PLEASE COME HOME
15. I AIN'T GONNA GIVE NOBODY NONE O' THIS JELLY ROLL
16. FAMOUS DOOR BOOGIE
17. KEEP IT A SECRET
18. WHY DON'T YOU BELIEVE ME
19. IF I HAD YOU
20. HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY KITTY
21. BUGLE CALL RAG
22. RUNNIN' WILD
23. A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND
24. LIZZIE'S BLUES
25. SALTY DOG
26. DARKTOWN STRUTTERS BALL
27. BLUE TURNING GREY OVER YOU
28. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN LONELY
29. SAN SUE STRUT
30. LOOK SHARP, BE SHARP

A big thank you to Mijas @ ACM2 for original post.In 2008, Jasmine released the largest compilation ever devoted to the music of trumpeter and vocalist Sharkey Bonano. Its 58 tracks represent his complete Kappa and Capitol recordings, which were made in New Orleans between June 8, 1949 and November 2, 1953. With the exception of a few Storyville, Circle, and Riverside albums, these are most of Bonano's recordings from this period. They were preceded only by about a dozen titles dating from 1936.

Bonano, whose approach to jazz could be compared with that of Wingy Manone or young Louis Prima, was a boisterous and sometimes bawdy singer. It is Bonano who grabs the microphone and cuts loose during the "Famous Door Boogie." His fellow musicians on the 1949 sessions include trombonist Santo Pecora of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and clarinetist Larry Shields, a cardinal member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. This calls up parallels with recordings made during the 50s by trumpeter Pee Wee Erwin and a band driven by drummer Tony Spargo, also of the ODJB

The collective personnel on this mammoth stash of Truman-era Dixieland also includes trombonists Charles Miller, Julian Laine, Jack Delaney, and Jimmy Blount; bassist and tuba man Chink Martin; clarinetists Lester Bouchon and Leonard Bujie Centobie (who recorded with Art Hodes for Blue Note); pianist Armand Hug, and drummer Monk Hazel who sometimes doubles on mellophone.

The vocalist on "Bill Bailey," "Salty Dog," "Darktown Strutters' Ball," and "Lizzie's Blues" is none other than the great Lizzie Miles, who made her first recordings in 1922 and was in the midst of a second comeback when she teamed up with Bonano's band. The guy heard airing his tonsils on "Dinah" and "How'm I Doin'" has been identified as Sam De Kemel, a mysterious character who also blows into a bugle. (All Music Review by arwulf arwulf)