Jack Lesberg, 85; Played Bass With Jazz Greats, Two Symphonies

Jack Lesberg, 85, a versatile bassist who played with jazz greats of the 1940s and ‘50s and also had a career as a symphonic player, died Sept. 17 of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home in Englewood, N.J.

A Boston native, Lesberg played violin in area clubs before switching to double bass in the late 1930s. He was a survivor of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, which killed 492 people in Boston in 1942.

After moving to New York in 1943, he quickly found work and played with such jazz legends as guitarist Eddie Condon, tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, clarinetist Benny Goodman, pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines and vocalists Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan.

In the late 1940s, he started performing with Louis Armstrong and toured with the Armstrong All Stars in the mid-1950s.

He worked with the New York City Symphony Orchestra, mostly under Leonard Bernstein’s direction, in the 1940s and the Sydney Symphony in Australia in the 1970s.

Lesberg also was featured on Hollywood soundtracks, including “Funny Girl” in 1968 and “Silent Movie” in 1976.