Biography
Admirers of contemporary jazz figures including Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, and the ironic Mose Allison may have overlooked Frank Isola amid the full roster of credited sidemen on their albums. Born in Detroit, the drummer was among many impressionable youths inspired to take up the instrument by the mighty Gene Krupa. That aspiration proved brief: after roughly fifteen years in music, the Detroit native retired in 1957. He first played in his high-school band, followed by service in a military ensemble from 1943 to 1945. Additional studies in California led to professional engagements, after which he returned to New York City to perform with Johnny Bothwell, Stan Getz, and others. In 1953 he launched an extended partnership with baritone saxophonist Mulligan that occupied him almost exclusively for several years, succeeded by a comparable stretch of freelance work.