Adele Girard

Beatrice Adele Girard ( born June 25, 1913 after getting married Adele Girard Marsala, † September 7, 1993 in Denver, Colorado) was an American jazz harpist and pianist of the swing.

Life and work

Girard, daughter of an opera singer and a violinist, who worked as concertmaster for Victor Herbert, studied classical harp lessons. At first, she played piano in hotels and first sang in 1933 in the orchestra of Harry Sosnik in Chicago. There she also began in 1934 to act as a harpist. This was one of the first jazz - Casper Reardon came to her around 1936 something before - and then a "novelty " number, which should serve the band to stand out from others. Temporarily she also dabbled in small roles in Hollywood as a film actress, in one of the films also her " Harp Boogie " was recorded. She played with Frankie Trumbauer and Jack Teagarden (in its "The three T's ", where it replaced Reardon at the harp ), for example in the club ( and steak restaurant ) " Hickory House " at the 52nd Street in New York, where she also in 1937 played in the band of Joe Marsala, whom she married the same year. Together they had a big band to about 1948 and were still in the late 1960s together in clubs, most recently in 1970 in the " Donte " in Hollywood. In the 1960s she also worked as a pianist and music theaters and was temporarily working at the Theater Faculty of the University of Southern California as an instructor. Even after the death of Marsala in 1978, she performed and took another 1992 CD at " Arbors " on with clarinetist Bobby Gordon, a student of Marsala.