Carmen Cavallaro (May 6, 1913 – October 12, 1989) was an American pianist. He established himself as one of the most accomplished and admired light music pianists of his generation.

Music career

Carmen Cavallaro was born in New York City, United States. Known as the “Poet of the Piano”, he showed a gift for music from age three, picking out tunes on a toy piano. His parents were encouraged to develop the child's musical talents and he studied classical piano in the United States. As a young pianist, he toured Europe, performing in many capitals. In 1933, Cavallaro joined Al Kavelin's orchestra, where he quickly became the featured soloist. After four years, he switched to a series of other big bands, including

Rudy Vallee Rudy or Rudi is a masculine given name, sometimes short for Rudolf, Rudolph, Rawad, Rudra, Ruairidh, or variations thereof, a nickname and a surname which may refer to: People Given name or nickname *Rudolf Rudy Andeweg (born 1952), Dutch poli ...

's in 1937. He also worked briefly with

Enric Madriguera Enric R. Madriguera (17 February 1902 – 7 September 1973) was a violinist of Catalan origin who was playing concerts as a child before he studied at the Barcelona Conservatory. (The Castilian form of his name is Enrique, which he sometimes used ...

and

Abe Lyman Abe Lyman (August 4, 1897 – October 23, 1957) was a popular bandleader from the 1920s to the 1940s. He made recordings, appeared in films and provided the music for numerous radio shows, including ''Your Hit Parade''. His name at birth was Abra ...

. Cavallaro formed his own band, a five-piece combo, in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, in 1939. His popularity grew and his group expanded into a 14-piece orchestra, releasing some 19 albums for

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

over the years. Although his band traveled the country and played in all the top spots, he made a particular impact at the

Mark Hopkins Hotel The InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco is a luxury hotel located at the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco, California. The hotel is managed by the InterContinental Hotels Group. The chain operates over 5,000 hotels and resorts in approxim ...

in San Francisco, which became a favored venue, and which also later became a favorite spot of

George Shearing Sir George Albert Shearing, (13 August 1919 14 February 2011) was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. Shearing was the composer of over 300 t ...

and

Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Op ...

. Other venues where he drew large audiences included New York’s

Hotel Astor Hotel Astor was a hotel on Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Built in 1905 and expanded in 1909–1910 for the Astor family, the hotel occupied a site bounded by Broadway, Shubert Alley, and 44th and 45th Stre ...

, Chicago’s Palmer House and the

Coconut Grove Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as The Grove, is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The neighborhood is roughly bound by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, S ...

in Los Angeles. In 1963 he had a million-seller hit recording of the song, "

Sukiyaki is a Japanese dish that is prepared and served in the ''nabemono'' (Japanese hot pot) style. It consists of meat (usually thinly sliced beef) which is slowly cooked or simmered at the table, alongside vegetables and other ingredients, in ...

". One of Cavallaro's vocalists,

Guy Mitchell Guy Mitchell (born Albert George Cernik; February 22, 1927 – July 1, 1999) was an American pop singer and actor, successful in his homeland, the UK, and Australia. He sold 44 million records, including six million-selling singles. In the fal ...

, later became famous in his own right. Cavallaro's single best-selling recording was his pop version of "Chopin's 'Polonaise'", Op. 53. He was awarded a Star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...

at 6301 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Influences and style

Cavallaro developed a piano-playing style of glittering and rippling

arpeggio A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

s to augment his melody, which was often arranged in thick and lush triple- and quadruple-octave chords. His musical interests and arrangements included dance music, particularly Latin rhythms, tangos and strict tempo dancing styles, as well as some pop and jazz arrangements of classical melodies. In this, he is often cited as being influenced by pianist

Eddy Duchin Edwin Frank Duchin (April 1, 1909 – February 9, 1951), commonly known as Eddy Duchin or alternatively Eddie Duchin, was an American jazz pianist and bandleader during the 1930s and 1940s. Early career Duchin was born on April 1, 1909 in Cambri ...

Liberace Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordi ...

was greatly influenced by both Cavallaro and Duchin.Liberace joked that he stole "everything but the flashy rings" from Cavallaro. All three shared a propensity for arranging classical piano themes in a pop idiom. Cavallaro became a member of

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

in 1957. Although he wrote several songs, including "Dolores My Own" and "Anita", the most popular were "While the Nightwind Sings" and "Masquerade Waltz".

Radio and film

Cavallaro also became famous through the media of radio and film, firstly with his regular program on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

during the 1940s, ''The Sheaffer Parade'', of which he was the host, and later in films where he played himself, starting with ''Hollywood Canteen'' (1944), then ''Diamond Horseshoe'', ''Out of This World'' (both 1945) and ''The Time, The Place and The Girl'' (1946). His most celebrated film achievement was playing the piano music for actor

Tyrone Power Tyrone Edmund Power III (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include '' Jesse James'', ...

’s hands to mime, in ''

The Eddy Duchin Story ''The Eddy Duchin Story'' is a 1956 Technicolor film biopic of band leader and pianist Eddy Duchin. It was directed by George Sidney, written by Samuel A. Taylor, and starred Tyrone Power and Kim Novak. Harry Stradling received an Academy Award n ...

'' (1956).

Personal life

Cavallaro was married to Wanda Cavallaro on 6 May 1935. They had three children (Delores Cavallaro Buscher, Paul Cavallaro and Anita Cavallaro Finkelstein) and one grandchild (Andrea Finkelstein Sherman). They were divorced on 28 December 1962. Cavallaro died from prostate cancer on 12 October 1989 in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. He was survived by his second wife Donna S. Cavallaro and children. CAVALLARO Donna S. Cavallaro, age 79, Friday, December 16, 2011 at Mt. Carmel West. Preceded in death by husband Carmen and brother Fr. Robert Schwenker, OMI. Survived by stepsons, Charles (Michelle), Frederick (Kristin) and Robert (Theresa);

Discography

Albums An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

: * 1941: ''I'll See You In My Dreams'', Decca Records * 1941: ''All The Things You Are ...'', Decca Records * 1942: ''Strauss Waltzes'', Decca Records * 1942: ''Songs Of Our Times 1932'', Decca Records * 1947: ''Serenade: Italian Folk Songs'', Decca Records * 1948: ''Irving Berlin Songs'' with

Dick Haymes Richard Benjamin Haymes (September 13, 1918 – March 28, 1980) was an Argentinian singer and actor. He was one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, an actor, television host ...

, Decca Records * 1949: ''For Sweethearts Only'', Decca Records * 1950: ''Carmen Cavallaro At The Piano'', Decca Records * 1950: ''Songs Of Our Times 1921'', Decca Records * 1950: ''Richard Rodgers And Oscar Hammerstein II'', Decca Records * 1951: ''Guys And Dolls'', Decca Records * 1952: ''Tangos for Romance'', Decca Records * 1956: ''Rome at Midnight'', Decca Records * 1956: ''For Latin Lovers'', Decca Records * 1956: ''The Masters' Touch'', Decca Records * 1957: ''Poetry In Ivory'', Decca Records * 1958: ''Cavallaro With That Latin Beat'', Brunswick Records * 1958: ''12 Easy Lessons In Love'', Decca Records * 1959: ''Dancing In The Dark'', Decca Records * 1960: ''Informally Yours'', Decca Records * 1960: ''Plays His Show Stoppers'', Decca Records * 1960: ''The Franz Liszt Story''. Decca Records * 1960: ''Cocktails with Cavallaro'', Decca Records * 1961: ''Cocktail Time'', Decca Records * 1962: ''Swingin' Easy'', Decca Records * 1962: ''Hits from Hollywood'', Decca Records * 1965: ''Eddy Duchin Remembered'', Decca Records

References

External links

* *
Carmen Cavallaro recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...

.
Carmen Cavallaro playing "La Vie en Rose" on a 7 ft Grand Piano
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cavallaro, Carmen 1913 births 1989 deaths Easy listening musicians Big band bandleaders Light music composers 20th-century American pianists American male pianists 20th-century American male musicians