Biography
Although Frank Tiberi devoted many years to serving first as sideman and later as leader of the Woody Herman Orchestra, his substantial career before that affiliation is frequently overlooked. He began performing locally as a child in 1936, joining a marching street band, and while he received instruction on clarinet and bassoon, he remained self-taught on tenor saxophone and flute. Tiberi started working club dates at age thirteen and went on to perform with Bob Chester's Big Band from 1948 to 1949, the Benny Goodman Quintet from 1954 to 1955, Dizzy Gillespie, and numerous other East Coast musicians. During the 1960s he maintained a busy schedule of studio work before becoming a member of Woody Herman's Orchestra in 1969. He stayed with the group through the clarinetist's final eighteen years and, following Woody's death in 1987, assumed leadership of the ensemble. Although the Herman Orchestra did not record again until the late 1990s, it maintained a part-time touring schedule, and Tiberi has sustained both the band's spirit and many of its original arrangements.
Albums
