Tribute Award to Trumpeter Conte Candoli

Conte Candoli, the ace be-bop-style trumpeter who has gained renown working with Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Supersax and Doc Severinsen, has received the eighth annual Tribute Award from the Los Angeles Jazz Society, it was announced Thursday. Other awards, including the society’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Educator Award, will be announced later. Candoli will be feted at a banquet at the Los Angeles Hilton Hotel and Towers on Sept. 9.

“I’m overwhelmed, to say the least,” said Candoli, who joins guitarist John Collins, pianist Gerald Wiggins and others in receiving the prestigious honor. “This is about jazz, and that’s what we all started out to do. We may get sidetracked a bit but we always get back to the main thing. I really appreciate it.”

Candoli--who will appear July 11 to 13 with drummer Frank Capp at Stingaree Gulch in San Pedro--was 16 years old and living in his native Mishawaka, Ind., when he began his career with Herman in the summer of 1945. “My brother, Pete, got me that job. As I think back, I owe all of this to Pete,” Candoli said. “He started me off and was my main influence.”

Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie also served as musical models for the trumpeter, who, after working with Kenton from 1952 to 1954, moved to the Southland to work with Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All-Stars at the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach. There, from 1954 to 1959, he played alongside such stalwarts as saxmen Bud Shank and Bob Cooper, trombonist Frank Rosolino and pianists Claude Williamson, Sonny Clark and Victor Feldman.

“Stan Levey (ex-Kenton drummer) got me on that gig,” recalled Candoli, who will turn 63 next Thursday. “I had left Kenton and was back home in Indiana and he called me, asking me if I wanted to come out to the Coast. It took me about one second to respond. ‘You got it!’ I told him.”

Another job Candoli joyfully remembers was with Shelly Manne at the late drummer’s jazz haunt, Shelly’s Manne-Hole in Hollywood, from 1961 to 1968. “Working with Shelly was fantastic,” he said. “I had played with him all my life, with Woody (Herman) and Stan (Kenton) and at the Lighthouse. But I enjoyed working his club the most. Just about anybody that was anybody--Coltrane, Miles, Art Blakey, Shearing, Oscar Peterson--was there, and we got to play opposite them (splitting sets).”

In 1972, Candoli joined Severinsen’s “Tonight Show” crew--a job he called “the greatest.”

“ ‘The Tonight Show’ enhanced my career,” he said. “It made me comfortable, so when I go out and play jazz, I’m in a good frame of mind. It gives me a sense of security, and that feels good. It certainly never dampened my desire to play. I may go on vacation and lay off for a week, but that’s about it.”

Candoli can also be heard with Bill Berry’s L.A. Band at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at 1:30 p.m. on July 29, and on that same day, with Tommy Newsom’s Orchestra at Warner Park in Woodland Hills at 5:30 p.m.

PIANIST SCORES MANNE AWARD: Pianist Cecilia Coleman has been selected as the recipient of the Shelly Manne Memorial New Talent Award, which, as part of the annual LAJS awards, is given to a promising young local musician. Coleman, 27, has worked with vibist Charlie Shoemake (she also studied improvisation with him), saxman Benn Clatworthy and trombonist Jimmy Cleveland.

Coleman, who has been a professional since the age of 19, is busy this weekend. She works with bassist Henry Franklin at the Overland Cafe in Palms tonight and with singer Shelly Moore at Coffee and More in Long Beach Sunday. She’ll also be with Cleveland’s octet at the Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood on July 25.

The pianist, who appears on Clatworthy’s soon-to-be-released “Thanks, Horace” (Discovery), cites Red Garland, Bud Powell, Mulgrew Miller and Benny Green as her chief influences. “Those are the ones I most listen to,” she said. “I’m also very fond of Woody Shaw. If I could play piano like a horn player, I’d like to play like him.”

TOP 10 JAZZ LPs

1. Time On My Hands--John Scofield

2. Parallel Realities--Jack DeJohnette

3. Stolen Moments--Lee Ritenour

4. Deep in the Shed--Marcus Roberts

5. Carmen Sings Monk--Carmen McRae

6. Apasionado--Stan Getz

7. Falling In Love With Jazz--Sonny Rollins

8. Diamond in the Rough--Roy Hargrove

9. Things Ain’t What They Used to Be--McCoy Tyner

10. For You Only--Marlon Jordan

SOURCE: Billboard