Wallington, George

Wallington, George, Italian pianist; b. Palermo, Sicily, Italy, Oct. 27,1924, d. N.Y, Feb. 15,1993. He was the son of an opera singer and immigrated to the United States with his family just prior to his first birthday. His earliest work of considerable merit was as part of the Dizzy Gillespie group, the first bebop combo to play on N.Y’s famed 52nd Street. Through the mid-1950s, he worked with an impressive number of jazz luminaries, including Charlie Parker, Red Rodney, Zoot Sims, Gerry Mulligan, Serge Chaloff, Kai Winding, and Terry Gibbs. He would also form and lead his own quintet that featured up-and-comers of the time trumpeter Donald Byrd and altoist Phil Woods, making several consummate albums for the Prestige label prior to the end of the decade. Any one of these recordings will reveal the great fluidity and technical expertise that marked his archetypal playing. A cerebral musician in some ways, he nonetheless played with a great deal of swing and joyful exuberance. A sad loss for jazz fans, he left the music scene in 1960 to labor in his family’s business, only returning briefly in the mid-1980s to record three albums. His death in 1993 cut short any chances of further musical activity and possible rediscovery by a new generation of jazz listeners and followers.

Discography

The George Wallington Trios (1949); Live at the Cafe Bohemia (1955); Jazz for the Carriage Trade (1956); The New York Scene (1957); Jazz at Hotchkiss (1957); Pleasure of a Jazz Inspiration (1985).

—Chris Hovan