Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa (December 12, 1925 – September 17, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
Originating in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Marmarosa became a professional musician in his mid-teens, and toured with several major big bands, including those led by Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, and Artie Shaw into the mid-1940s. He moved to Los Angeles in 1945, where he became increasingly interested and involved in the emerging bebop scene. During his time on the West Coast, he recorded in small groups with leading bebop and swing musicians, including Howard McGhee, Charlie Parker, and Lester Young, as well as leading his own bands.
Marmarosa returned to Pittsburgh for health reasons in 1948. He began performing much less frequently, and had a presence only locally for around a decade. Friends and fellow musicians had commented from an early stage that Marmarosa was an unusual character. His mental stability was probably affected by being beaten into a coma when in his teens, by a short-lived marriage followed by permanent separation from his children, and by a traumatic period in the army. He made comeback recordings in the early 1960s, but soon retreated to Pittsburgh, where he played occasionally into the early 1970s. From then until his death three decades later, he lived with family and in veterans' hospitals.
Early life
Marmarosa was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 12, 1925. He had "Italian working-class parents" – Joseph and Carmella. He was the middle of three children, between sisters Audrey and Doris, He received classical music lessons, but was influenced by the jazz playing of Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and others after fellow pianist Erroll Garner, four years Marmarosa's elder, introduced him to their music.
Later life and career
1941–50
Marmarosa began his professional career around 1941, joining the Johnnie "Scat" Davis orchestra at the age of 15 or 16. He was first mentioned in the national jazz press the following year, appearing in Down Beat magazine for his playing at a jam session.
After Krupa's orchestra broke up in the middle of 1943, Marmarosa played in Ted Fio Rito's band for at least a month that summer. Marmarosa recorded some trio tracks with Krupa and DeFranco in 1944. Two of the tracks recorded, "Ornithology" and "Yardbird Suite", have been included in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Marmarosa recorded extensively as a sideman in the period 1945–47, in both bebop and swing contexts. these were the first pizzicato jazz cello recordings. In the same year, he featured in some of Gene Norman's Just Jazz concerts, Shaw reported that Marmarosa "was gentle and fragile, [...and] never learned to deal with the world of a musician." and recorded four trio sides for them in July, but the quality did not match his earlier playing. The other, in a quartet with trumpeter Bill Hardman, was released in 1988. Segal commented that Marmarosa "didn't talk much, was very mild-mannered. He just drank an awful lot, shot and a beer all day long. It would've put nine out of ten people under the table, but he was still walking around." The pianist shuttled between Chicago and Pittsburgh for a time, then settled again in the latter. or the early-to-mid 1970s. Diabetes contributed to his permanent retirement. He sometimes played piano in the family's basement or for other residents at the hospital. He was survived by his two sisters.
In some of his 1944 playing, Marmarosa was progressively bebop-directed, employing melodies derived from the harmony and varying the rhythmic positioning of accents; soon after, he added more space to his playing, using shorter sequences of notes than typical in bebop.
Critic and musician Brian Priestley wrote that "What was so distinctive about Dodo's work was partly his harmonic sense and knowledge of the additional notes [...in bebop.] Many pianists were trying to find ways to voice these satisfactorily in full chording, but none did so as pleasingly or as fluently as Marmarosa. Partly it was also the way he alternated between employing his hands together and in opposition to each other, and allied to this was his unusual time feeling."
By the time of his 1960s recordings, Marmarosa had a more relaxed playing style. Biographers commented that "his even, classically derived articulation had given way to a more rhythmically pronounced, jazz-oriented playing, and, above all, his musical personality seemed still more determined and coherent." Marmarosa also encouraged DeFranco to take up bebop.
Discography
Compilations of previously released material, and recordings from or for radio broadcasts, are not listed.
Albums as leader/co-leader
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Year recorded
!Title
!Label
!Notes
|-
|1958–62
|Pittsburgh 1958
|Uptown
|Most tracks trio, with Danny Mastri and Johnny Vance (bass; separately), Henry Sciullo and Chuck Spatafore (drums; separately); some tracks quintet, with Danny Conn (trumpet), Carlo Galluzzo (tenor sax), Jimmy DeJulio (bass), Spatafore (drums); all in concert; some tracks quintet, with Conn (trumpet), Buzzy Renn (alto sax), DeJulio (bass), Spatafore (drums); released 1997
|-
|1961
|Dodo's Back!
|Argo
|Trio, with Richard Evans (bass), Marshall Thompson (drums)
|-
|1962
|Jug & Dodo
|Prestige
|Most tracks quartet, with Gene Ammons (tenor sax), Sam Jones (bass), Marshall Thompson (drums); some tracks trio, without Ammons
|-
|1962
|The Chicago Sessions
|Argo
|Quartet, with Bill Hardman (trumpet), Richard Evans (bass), Ben Dixon (drums); released 1988, combined with reissue of Dodo's Back!
|}
Albums as sideman
{|class="wikitable"
!Year recorded
!Leader
!Title
!Label
!Notes
|-
|1960
|
|Jazz Up Your Life
|Starwell
|Released 2006
|}
Singles as leader/co-leader
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Year recorded
!Title
!Label
!Notes
|-
|1946
|"Mellow Mood"/"How High the Moon"
|Atomic
|"Mellow Mood": trio, with Ray Brown (bass), Jackie Mills (drums); "How High the Moon": quartet, with Lucky Thompson (tenor sax) added
|-
|1946
|"I Surrender Dear"/"Dodo's Blues"
|Atomic
|"Dodo's Blues": trio, with Ray Brown (bass), Jackie Mills (drums); "I Surrender Dear": quartet, with Lucky Thompson (tenor sax) added
|-
|1946
|"Raindrops"/"I've Got News for You"
|Atomic
|Trio, with Barney Kessel (guitar), Gene Englund (bass)
|-
|1947
|"Lover"/"Dary Departs", "Trade Winds"/"Bopmatism"
|Dial
|Trio, with Harry Babasin (bass, cello), Jackie Mills (drums)
|-
|1950
|"My Foolish Heart"/"Why Was I Born?", "Blue Room"/"The Night Is Young"
|Savoy
|Trio, with Thomas Mandrus (bass), Joe "Jazz" Wallace (drums)
|}
Singles as sideman
Tracks recorded but not released as singles are not listed.
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Year recorded
!Leader
!Title
!Label
|-
|1943
|
|"The Moose", "Pow-Wow", "Sittin' Home Waitin' for You", "Strollin'"
|Decca
|-
|1944
|
|"Bakiff", "West End Blues", "In There", "Saltin' Away My Sweet Dreams", "Baby Won't You Please Come Home", "The Great Lie", "The Jeep Is Jumpin'", "Blue Moon", "In a Mellotone", "My Heart Isn't in It", "Drop Me Off in Harlem", "Gulf Coast Blues", "Flat Top Flips His Lid", "Skyliner", Sharecroppin' Blues", "Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are"
|Decca
|-
|1944
|
|"Hodge Podge", "Liza"
|V-Disc
|-
|1944
|
|"You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me", "Opus One", "Swing High"
|Lang-Worth
|-
|1944
|
|"For All We Know", "I'm Nobody's Baby"
|V-Disc
|-
|1944
|
|"Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive", "Lady Day", "Jumpin' on the Merry-Go-Round"
|RCA-Victor
|-
|1945
|
|"I'll Never Be the Same", "Can't Help Lovin' 'Dat Man", "'S Wonderful", "Bedford Drive", "The Grabtown Grapple", "September Song", "But Not for Me", "Summertime", "Easy to Love", "Time on My Hands", "Tabu", "A Foggy Day", "These Foolish Things", "I Could Write a Book", "Thrill of a Lifetime", "Kasbah", "Lament", "(My) Lucky Number", "Love Walked In", "Soon", "Keepin' Myself for You", "No One But You", "Natch", "That's for Me", "They Can't Take That away from Me", "Our Love Is Here to Stay", "I Was Doing All Right", "Someone to Watch Over Me", "Things Are Looking Up", "The Maid with the Flaccid Air", "No One But You", "They Didn't Believe Me", "Dancing on the Ceiling", "I Can't Get Started", "Just Floatin' Along", "Yolanda", "I Can't Escape from You", "Scuttlebutt", "The Gentle Grifter", "Mysterioso", "Hop, Skip and Jump"
|RCA-Victor
|-
|1945
|
|"Let's Walk", "Love of My Life", "Ghost of a Chance", "How Deep Is the Ocean", "The Glider", "The Hornet"
|Musicraft
|-
|1945
|
|"What Is This Thing Called Love", "Minor Blues", "You Know It"
|Keynote
|-
|1945
|
|"Nothin' from Nothin'", "My Blue Heaven"
|Sunset
|-
|1945
|
|"Four Squares Only", "Star Time"
|Hamp-Tone
|-
|1945
|
|"Laguna", "Dunkin' Bagel", "Boogin' at Berg's", "Don't Blame Me"
|Bee-Bee
|-
|1945
|
|"Atomic Cocktail", "Yep-Roc Heresay", "Penicillin Boogie", "Jumpin' at the Record Shop", "Drei Six Cents", "Minuet in Vout", "Tee Say Malee"
|Atomic
|-
|1945
|
|"Baby Won't You Please Come Home", "Groove Juice Jive", "The Hop", "Three Handed Boogie"
|Cadet
|-
|1945
|
|"Dizzy Boogie", "Flat Foot Floogie", "Popity Pop", "Slim's Jam"
|Bel-Tone
|-
|1945
|
|"Atom Buster", "What Is This Thing Called Love", "Slick Chick", "The Man I Love"
|Atomic
|-
|1945
|
|"D.B. Blues", "Lester Blows Again", "These Foolish Things", "Jumpin' at Mesner's"
|Philo
|-
|1946
|
|"Chicken Rhythm", "Santa Monica Jump", "Mean Pretty Mama", "School Kids Hop"
|Bel-Tone
|-
|1946
|
|"Ya Ha Ha", "Carne", "Ding Dong Oreneey", "Buck Dance Rhythm"
|Four Star
|-
|1946
|
|"A Night in Tunisia", "Ornithology", "Yardbird Suite", "Moose the Mooche"
|Dial
|-
|1946
|
|"Boyd Meets Stravinsky"
|Jewell
|-
|1946
|
|"That's My Home"
|Capitol
|-
|1946
|
|"Changing My Tune", "For You, for Me, for Evermore", "And So to Bed", "Connecticut", "Don't You Believe It, Dear", "It's the Same Old Dream", "I Believe", "When You're Around"
|Musicraft
|-
|1946
|
|"One for My Baby", "A Little Kiss Each Morning", "Dream Awhile", "There's No Business Like Show Business", "It's Dreamtime", "You're Driving Me Crazy!", "Who Cares What People Say", "I'm Yours"
|Musicraft
|-
|1946
|
|"Midnight at Minton's", "Dialated Pupils", "High Wind in Hollywood", Up in Dodo's Room"
|Dial
|-
|1946
|
|"Flight of the Vout Bug", "Deep in the Blues", "It Shouldn't Happen", "Big Chief Albuquerque"
|Atomic
|-
|1946
|
|"Dell's Bells", "One for Prez", "The Man I Love", "Easy Swing"
|Sunset (released by Jazz Selection)
|-
|1947
|
|"Relaxin' at Camarillo", "Cheers", "Carvin' the Bird", "Stupendous"
|Dial
|-
|1947
|
|"Just One More Chance", "From Dixieland to Be-Bop", "Boulevard Bounce", "Boppin' the Blues"
|RCA-Victor
|-
|1947
|
|"Dodo's Bounce", "Dodo's Lament", "Slam's Mishap", "Schuffle That Ruff", "Smooth Sailing", "Commercial Eyes"
|Downbeat
|-
|1947
|
|"Momma's in the Kitchen", "(I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance", "Little Red Riding Wood", "Puerto Vootie", "Down by the Station", "Communications", "Three Little Words"
|MGM
|-
|1947
|
|"Cherokee", "Re-bop and Be-bop", "Zoo-Baba-Da-Oo-Ee"
|Decca
|-
|1947
|
|"Not So Bop Blues", "Tea for Two"
|Mercury
|-
|1947
|
|"Bop"
|Capitol
|-
|1947
|
|"Black and Blue", "Remember I Knew You When"
|IRRA
|}
Main sources:
Filmography
- Thrill of a Romance (made 1944; released 1945)