Glenn Zottola

Born on 28 April 1947 in Port Chester, New York, Glenn Paul Zottola took up the trumpet when he was three, a precocious beginning shaped by his father’s own playing and his work manufacturing trumpet mouthpieces. His brother Bob performed with the orchestras of Charlie Barnet, Maynard Ferguson and Billy May. Public performances began at nine, and by twelve he was appearing regularly on television while also taking part in the Atlantic City Jazz Festival. Early in the 1960s he held a principal role in the documentary film Come Back. In 1967 he entered the Glenn Miller Orchestra, then led by Buddy De Franco. Brief membership in Lionel Hampton’s band followed in 1970, after which Zottola spent the next ten years accompanying performers such as Bob Hope, Al Martino, Patti Page, Tony Martin, Robert Merrill and Mel Tormé. Toward the close of that decade he served as lead trumpeter for the touring production of Chicago. In 1979 he became part of Tex Beneke’s organization and simultaneously joined the Benny Goodman Sextet for a nationwide tour.

The new decade opened with Zottola singing, acting and playing in the musical Swing at Washington’s Kennedy Center, followed by engagements in the pit orchestras of Evita, Annie and Barnum on Broadway, as well as the Stratford, Connecticut revival of Anything Goes that featured Ginger Rogers. Early in the 1980s he entered Bob Wilber’s Bechet Legacy ensemble, contributing to both recordings and international tours. Additional recording credits include sessions with Butch Miles, George Masso, Keith Ingham and Maxine Sullivan. Midway through the decade he directed his own large ensemble at New York’s Rainbow Room while also co-leading, with Bobby Rosengarden, another big band at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Greenwich, Connecticut. Overseas festival appearances took him to Ireland, Holland and Finland, while domestic engagements included events in St. Louis and Sacramento plus the Kool Jazz Festival in New York. In 1988 he appeared as featured soloist in Wilber’s reconstruction of Benny Goodman’s 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. He headlined the Clearwater Jazz Festival in Florida in 1990 and, late in 1991, toured Britain and the Continent with a group directed by Peanuts Hucko.

Beyond the trumpet, Zottola demonstrates equal command of the saxophone, bringing distinctive fluency to the alto. Although grounded in the jazz mainstream and displaying a clear affinity for the swing period, his improvisations occasionally reveal an informed appreciation of bop and subsequent stylistic advances. The promise evident in his childhood has been cultivated into a versatile and commanding musicianship.