Frank Strazzeri born 24 April 1930

Frank Strazzeri (April 24, 1930 – May 9, 2014) was an American jazz pianist who was in demand for straight-ahead sessions for decades. 

Frank (John) Strazzeri began on tenor saxophone and clarinet at age 12, but soon switched to piano. After attending the Eastman School of Music, in 1952 the 22-year-old Strazzeri worked as house pianist at a Rochester nightclub, accompanying visiting performers including Roy Eldridge, J.J. Johnson and Billie Holiday. He moved to New Orleans in 1954 and played traditional jazz in bands led by Sharkey Bonano and Al Hirt, but his main interest was in bebop. Soon, he went on the road with Charlie Ventura (1957-8), then Woody Herman (1959). 

At Herman’s suggestion, he settled in Los Angeles in 1960. There he worked extensively as a studio musician on the West Coast jazz scene, and toured with Joe Williams, Maynard Ferguson, and Les Brown. He also toured with Elvis Presley in June 1972, including four Madison Square Garden shows in New York, and the following January for the "Aloha from Hawaii" worldwide telecast. He struck up a friendship with Elvis based on a mutual interest in karate. 

After three years with Les Brown’s band he joined Cal Tjader’s quintet in 1974. From 1975 he led his own groups and undertook session work playing with a cross section of jazz artists, among them Herb Ellis Bill Perkins, Art Pepper, Terry Gibbs, Bud Shank, The Lighthouse All-Stars and Chet Baker, in addition to recording as a leader, He also recorded with Louie Bellson (in London 1980 & 1982) and Tal Farrow (1984). 

                                    

When filmmaker Bruce Weber was producing the Baker documentary Let’s Get Lost, the trumpeter designated Strazzeri to supervise the music.“I was extremely surprised when I was asked to do the film,” Strazzeri told Bill Kolhaase of The Los Angeles Times in 1993. “(Baker) played with hundreds of piano players. But I think he felt an alignment with me, a buddy thing that made him feel comfortable. I used to break him up quite a bit. He lived on the sad side of life, you know, the doom-and-gloom thing. So I’d crack jokes and make him smile.” 

Strazzeri’s primary source of income, however, was from his music, which continued long after his work with Presley. Among the colleagues with whom he worked most closely was saxophonist and flutist Bill Perkins. They recorded together on several occasions in, among other settings, Strazzeri’s sextet Woodwinds West. As a leader, Strazzeri headed sessions for Revelation, Glendale, Sea Breeze, Catalyst, Discovery, and Fresh Sound. 

He spent most of his career in Los Angeles, but moved back to Rochester in late April 2014 following a final engagement at the Glendale club Jax, where he often played in his final years. He died in Rochester, New York, at the age of 84 on May 9, 2014. Strezzeri’s generally conservative playing reflected the relaxes approach and technical competence of the finest keyboard players in Los Angeles. Bobby Shew spoke glowingly of him as “a giant, a master, an incredibly underrated player, a complete genius.” 

(Edited from Arts Journal, Wikipedia, AllMusic & New Grove Dictionary of Jazz)