Pete Jolly

Peter A. Ceragioli ( born June 5, 1932 in New Haven, Connecticut; † November 6, 2004 in Pasadena, California ) was an American jazz pianist and accordionist and best known for his work on soundtracks for various television movies and television series.

Life and work

Jolly began playing the accordion at the age of three years. In 1940, he appeared as "The Boy Wonder Accordionist " in the radio show on Hobby Lobby. The radio announcer had difficulty with his Italian name and called him then Pete Jolly. This pleased him so well that he took this as his artist name. 1955 appeared on RCA Victor as album Jolly Jumps In that involved jazz musicians such as Jimmy Giuffre, Shorty Rogers, Howard Roberts, Curtis Counce and Shelly Manne and where Jolly is partially heard on the Akkorderon.

His composition Little Bird 1963 was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 1964 he founded the Pete Jolly Trio, but also as a solo artist, he recorded several albums and worked with some well-known jazz artists as Buddy DeFranco, Art Pepper and Red Norvo. Jolly's music can be seen in various television productions such as Get Smart, The Love Boat, I Spy, Mannix, M * A * S * H, and Dallas, as well as heard in movie soundtracks. His recent albums include the 1969 live jazz club Donte 's rehearsed album Timeless ( with bassist Chuck Berghofer and drummer Nick Ceroli ) and Yeah! (1995).

He died in Pasadena of complications from bone cancer. His life was all about the music, the pianist in the " Los Angeles Times " once had confided: "I had to do that fortunately many things I wanted to do. You go out, play what you want and people enjoy it. For me it was a good life. "