Tony Parenti

Tony Parenti ranks among the most skilled clarinetists to come out of New Orleans, yet he remained somewhat overlooked across a lengthy professional life. His tone stayed smooth and fluid while his approach delivered understated twists alongside moments of real excitement. His father had performed as a musician with the Italian Peasant Army. Parenti began on violin before making a permanent switch to clarinet. Following studies at St. Philips School in New Orleans, he appeared with Joseph Taverno's Italian Band and spent time alongside Alfred "Baby" Laine in 1914, Nick LaRocca, Johnny Stein, Johnny DeDroit, and numerous other local ensembles. Starting in 1917 he fronted groups of his own from time to time, and he made his first recordings as a leader in New Orleans in 1925 before relocating to New York in the late 1920s. There he took studio work at CBS and performed with the dance orchestras of Paul Ash, Arnold Johnson, Fred Rich, Meyer Davis, B.A. Rolfe, and additional leaders. After four years in the Radio City Symphony Orchestra, Parenti entered Ted Lewis' band in 1939 and remained until 1945. The next year he returned to jazz, beginning an extended collaboration with Eddie Condon, appearing with George Brunis, and leading his own Dixieland unit at Jimmy Ryan's. He later performed in Chicago with Muggsy Spanier and Miff Mole, spent four years in Florida during the early 1950s (frequently alongside Preacher Rollo Laylan's Five Saints), joined the Dukes of Dixieland briefly in 1952, and came back to New York in 1954, where he again concentrated on leading his own groups, including an extended residency at Jimmy Ryan's from 1963 to 1969. Parenti stayed active until his death and remained devoted to classic Dixieland throughout. His recordings as a leader date from 1925-1926 and 1928 (later collected on a Frog CD), as well as sessions for Jazzology in 1947, 1949, 1962, 1966-1967, and 1971, Southland in 1954, Jazztone in 1955, and Fat Cat in 1971.