Pete Candoli was an iron man in an iron-man calling. He played lead trumpet in the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Stan Kenton, Les Brown, Count Basie, Freddy Slack, Tex Beneke, Jerry Gray, Charlie Barnet and Woody Herman…among others. He became famous as Superman With A Horn in Woody Herman’s First Herd of 1945 and ’46. Later, he co-led a group with his younger brother Conte. He was a mainstay in the recording studios and on the sound stages of Hollywood. News of Pete Candoli’s death January 11th at the age of 84 was made public today. Conte died in 2001.
Conte and Pete Candoli
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
Paul Desmond and I first heard Pete when he was playing with Ray McKinley at the Casa Manana in LA, the spring/summer of 1942, on our way to San Diego. Paul had wanted to hear clarinetist Mahlon Clark, but Pete was beginning to blossom, and he caught our attention. Kent Jorgensen, Jack Weeks, Dave Kriedt and I probably saw him with Sonny Dunham at Guernieville in 1941, but would not have noticed him, as the show was all “Sonya”, on both the trombone and trumpet. A few decades later at Redondo for the “Kentonish” festival, he played the “Godfather theme” from his hotel room balcony. It escapes me now who he was serenading. I don’t believe that it was Howard Rumsey, but it might have been Conte, who was there. Ah, memories!