George Wallington

George Wallington ranked among the earliest and most accomplished bop pianists, standing alongside Al Haig and just beneath Bud Powell. He also wrote a pair of bop standards that enjoyed temporary popularity, “Lemon Drop” and “Godchild.” Born in Sicily, he moved with his family to the U.S. in 1925. Reaching New York in the early ’40s, he joined Dizzy Gillespie’s combo of 1943-1944, the first bop unit to perform on 52nd Street. After a year in Joe Marsala’s band, he spent 1946-1952 working with the leading figures of the style—Charlie Parker, Serge Chaloff, Allan Eager, Kai Winding, Terry Gibbs, Brew Moore, Al Cohn, Gerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims, and Red Rodney among them. In 1953 he traveled to Europe with Lionel Hampton’s ill-fated big band, then led his own New York groups from 1954 to 1960; among the rising sidemen in those ensembles were Donald Byrd and Jackie McLean, the latter later replaced by Phil Woods. In 1960 Wallington left the music profession entirely, taking a position in his family’s air-conditioning company. Twenty-four years afterward he returned to recording, issuing three albums of new compositions before his death.