Buddy DeFranco

Buddy DeFranco stands among the foremost clarinet virtuosos in jazz history, widely regarded as the leading voice on the instrument from the period after 1940 until Eddie Daniels gained prominence. His timing proved unfortunate, since the clarinet lost much of its audience once the swing era ended, and unlike Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw he never reached household-name status with the wider public.

At fourteen he claimed first place in an amateur swing contest underwritten by Tommy Dorsey. Early professional work took him through the orchestras of Gene Krupa between 1941 and 1942 and Charlie Barnet from 1943 to 1944, after which he worked with Dorsey intermittently through 1948. Apart from a brief stretch in 1950 spent inside Count Basie’s septet, DeFranco functioned chiefly as a bandleader from that point forward. One of the few clarinetists to translate Charlie Parker’s melodic language onto the instrument, he captured countless poll victories and performed with the Metronome All-Stars in the late 1940s. Sessions in the 1950s came frequently, often with sidemen such as Art Blakey, Kenny Drew, and Sonny Clark, while he also joined Norman Granz’s Verve jam sessions. From 1960 to 1963 he led a quartet featuring Tommy Gumina on accordion and recorded an album with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers on which he played bass clarinet.

Steady work remained scarce during the 1960s, so he accepted leadership of the Glenn Miller ghost band from 1966 through 1974. Greater artistic satisfaction arrived through his intermittent co-leadership of a quintet with Terry Gibbs that began in the early 1980s, and he continued to record across subsequent decades for a wide array of labels.