George Wallington (October 27, 1924 – February 15, 1993) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Born in Sicily, his career as a pianist began in the early 1940s, when he played with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and contributed to the development of bebop. in Sicily. His date of birth has been given as both 1923 and 1924, with his obituary in The New York Times identifying his date of birth as October 27, 1923 and other sources dating his birth to October 27, 1924.
He said that he acquired the name Wallington in high school because he liked "to wear flashy clothes [...] and the kids in the neighborhood would say, 'Hey, look at Wallington!'" He joined Gillespie and saxophonist Charlie Parker at the Three Deuces and became well known on 52nd Street. and "Godchild," played for The Birth of the Cool recordings led by Miles Davis. In fact, prior to 1949 Wallington had no records under his own name despite being one of the busiest musicians in New York. A recording of Wallington in Chaloff's band, one of the few from this period, indicated his playing style was "urgent and fiery...but with its own sense of time, touch and phrasing." Critic Jim Todd praised Wallington's early work as "some of the finest piano that bebop has to offer," and in particular highlighted his trio work as showing his most confident playing from the period. He and Annie Ross, however, left the band early following hecklers and boos at some of Hampton's concerts.
In 1954, Wallington formed his own ensemble in New York. Again working with arranger Quincy Jones, his ensemble's first recording session in May included trumpeter Dave Burns, trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, tenor saxophonist Frank Foster, and multi-instrumentalist Danny Bank on baritone saxophone and flute. The music from this session was released on the emerging Blue Note label.
Wallington's live performance at the Café Bohemia in September 1955, Live! at Cafe Bohemia, saw the pianist settle on a quintet format as his permanent group. The first iteration of this group included Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, Wallington, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor. was developing his own niche within the bop style. Wallington substituted McLean for Phil Woods and Chambers for Teddy Kotick and took his reformed quintet to the famous Van Gelder Studio to record Jazz for the Carriage Trade in January 1956.
1960–1993: Retirement and comeback
In 1960, Wallington stopped playing music and moved to Florida to work in the family air conditioning business, His later quintet work has been classified as "somewhere amongst Art Blakey's early Jazz Messengers, Hank Mobley, Sonny Stitt, Johnny Griffin, and ... mid-'50s Mingus."
Wallington has been compared to fellow jazz pianists Al Haig, Bud Powell,
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|1952
|George Wallington Trio
|Progressive
|1952
|Trios, with Charles Mingus or Oscar Pettiford (bass), Max Roach (drums), Chuck Wayne (mandola, one track)
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|1954
|George Wallington with Strings
|Norgran
|1954
|With Joseph Livoisi (violin), David Uchitel (viola), William Eder (cello), Clyde Lombardi (bass)
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|1984
|Virtuoso
|Interface
|1984
|Solo piano
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|1949–53
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|Early Stan
|Prestige
|1963
|Wallington appears on five tracks recorded in 1949, with Terry Gibbs et al.
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|1949–52
| Zoot Sims
|The Brothers
|Prestige
|1956
|Wallington appears on four tracks recorded in 1952
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|1957
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|Tenor and Flute
|Riverside
|1957
|Aka Bobby Jaspar with George Wallington and Idrees Sulieman
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|1952
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|Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet
|Blue Note
|1953
|Four tracks; reissued on Mellé's The Complete Blue Note Fifties Sessions in 1998
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|1951
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|Mulligan Plays Mulligan
|Prestige
|1956
|Reissue of two 10" LPs; aka Historically Speaking
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|1952
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|Annie Ross Sings
|Prestige
|1953
|Reissued on King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings, together with recordings by King Pleasure, in 1958
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