Johnny Varro
Johnny Varro ( born January 11, 1930 in Brooklyn as John Robert Varro ) is an American jazz pianist, bandleader and arranger.
Life and work
Johnny Varro began with ten years playing the piano; with jazz, he came at the Commodore Music Shop in New York City in touch. There he met the manager Jack Crystal know ( the father of Billy Crystal), who hosted jam sessions at the Lower East Side. In these sessions Varro met musicians such as Willie "The Lion" Smith, Sid Catlett Joe Thomas, Hot Lips Page, Joe Sullivan and Pete Brown.
He had his first professional job after completing his military service in 1953 with Bobby Hackett, with whom he toured on the east coast of the USA. In 1954, he appeared in the New York jazz club Nick's with Phil Napoleon, and later with Pee Wee Erwin. 1957 brought him Eddie Condon break as pianist in his club; Finally, he was also a regular pianist in Condon's band in the Buck Clayton, Wild Bill Davison, Pee Wee Russell, Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarity, George Wettling, Yank Lawson and Peanuts Hucko played. He has also performed in New York clubs like The Embers, The Round Table, Condon 's Uptown ( with Edmond Hall ) and The Metropole; while he played, among others with Red Allen, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Shavers, Jo Jones and Jonah Jones.
In 1965 he moved to Miami Beach, where he appeared in the Jackie Gleason Show; He also worked at this time with Flip Phillips, Billy Butterfield, Phil Napoleon and went with the Dukes of Dixieland on tour. In 1979 he went to Los Angeles, where he among other things in the next 14 years played with Red Norvo and Jack Sheldon; next he went to Gatsby 's Restaurant in Brentwood as a soloist. Finally, he organized the band Swing 7, the music played in the style of the 30 's to 50 years and appeared at jazz festivals and parties.
In 1993 he settled in Florida in the Tampa Bay area, where he was a guest on at jazz festivals, jazz parties and concerts. In this Teit produced some recordings for the label Arbors Records in solo, trio and enlarged ensemble under its own name and as a sideman, as with Ruby Braff, Rick Fay, Tom Saunders and Ralph Sutton, also when shooting the label Nagel Heyer, among other things, with the New York All-Stars, the Bill Allred / Roy Williams Quintet, George Masso, Danny Moss and Warren and Allan Vache. Was created in 2009 with Ken Peplowski Quartet album Two Legends.
The critic Scott Yanow counts Varro to the best swing -influenced pianist since the 1950s, which was however long the perimeter of Traditional attributed to jazz and therefore not adequately perceived by a wider audience. He was influenced by Jess Stacy, Teddy Wilson and Eddie Miller.
Disco Graphical Notes
- Everything I Love ( Arbors, 1992)
- Afterglow ( Arbors, 1999)
- All That Jazz ( Arbors, 2001)
- Ring Dem Bells ( Arbors, 2008)