Frank Marocco born 2 January 1931

Frank L. Marocco (January 2, 1931 – March 3, 2012) was an American piano-accordionist, arranger and composer. He was recognized as one of the most recorded accordionists in the world and can be heard on hundreds of movie soundtracks, recordings, musical theatre, TV shows, commercials, video games and theme park music. He worked with dozens of composers, including Henry Mancini, John Williams, Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein and Michel Legrand.

Frank L. Marocco was born Jan. 2, 1931, in Joliet, Ill., Growing up in the town of Waukegan, he began to take accordion lessons at age 7. He later added piano, clarinet, music theory and composition to his interests. At the age of seven years, his parents enrolled him in a six-week beginner class for learning to play the accordion. His first teacher was George Stefani, who supervised the young accordionist for nine years. Although they began studying classical music, Stefani soon encouraged young Frank to explore other musical genres. In addition to the accordion, Frank studied piano and clarinet, as well as music theory, harmony, and composition. Later on, he studied with Andy Rizzo, a well-known American concert accordionist and teacher.

At the age of 17, Frank Marocco won the first prize in the 1948 Chicago Musicland festival, and was rewarded with a guest performance with the Chicago Pops Orchestra playing Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu. His success encouraged him to embark on a professional music career. He established a trio, which toured in the Midwestern states. After he met his wife, Anne, in South Bend Indiana, the couple moved to Los Angeles, California, in the early 1950s.

In 1959, the couple moved to Los Angeles, where Marocco formed another band which toured hotels and clubs in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Palm Springs. Later on, he began working in Hollywood, where television studios and movie production companies provided him a successful career.

                      Here’s “Frank’s Tune” from above LP

                            

In the 1960s, Frank Marocco recorded a solo album released by Verve, a legendary jazz record label. In 1966, he worked together with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, and performed on the world-famous album Pet Sounds. He had become well established by the mid 60’s as a studio player and was also valued for his 
technique, as well as his versatility. The range of his hundreds of film score appearances reaches from such assignments as playing one of the two accordion parts in Maurice Jarre’s 1965 orchestral score for “Dr. Zhivago” to the more recent “Pirates of the Caribbean” pictures, for which he played accordion, bass accordion and musette.

Marocco was also a busy composer, publishing study books for the accordion, as well as collections of his own diverse songs and compositions. Gifted with a wry sense of humour, he often gave whimsical titles to his own works, among them “Bossame Mucho,” “Road to Marocco,” “I Got Rh-Rh-Rhythm” and “Samba de Van Nuys.”

Marocco performed on a USO tour in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Guam, and other countries in the Pacific, appearing onstage with Bob Hope. He also played in the Les Brown big band, during six Love Boat cruises. Marocco performed in collaboration with hundreds of world-famous artists and conductors during his career, both on stage as well as in studio.
As a musician, he contributed to hundreds of movie soundtracks, television shows and TV-series. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences nominated him as the most valuable player eight years in a row.

In addition to his career as a musician, Marocco wrote and arranged music for solo, duet, and orchestra in a wide variety of musical styles, including jazz, popular standards, international, Latin, religious, and classical. He was the musical director and conductor of an annual "music camp", the Frank Marocco Accordion Event, which is held in Mesa, Arizona in January. 

The event brings together over 50 accordionists from around the U.S. and Canada, who, after three full days of instruction, rehearsal, and recreational activities, present a full concert of accordion music.

Frank Marocco also played with some of the best Jazz Musicians in America and Europe. The Frank Marocco Accordion Event, directed by Marocco, was held annually in Mesa, Ariz., bringing together accordionists from across the U.S. and Canada for three days of accordion-related seminars, rehearsals and performance.

He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Accordionists’ Assn. in 2006. He was nominated eight years in a row for the Recording Academy’s Most Valuable Player Award, receiving the Award in 1985 and 1986. And he was inducted into the Accordion Hall of Fame in Vicenza, Italy, in 2000.

Marocco died on March 3, 2012 at his home in California’s San Fernando Valley. He had been hospitalized earlier at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles for complications following hip replacement surgery. He was 81 years old.  (Edited from Wikipedia & LA Times)