John Daniel LaPorta (April 13, 1920 – May 12, 2004) was a jazz clarinetist and composer.
Early life and education
A native of Philadelphia, LaPorta started playing clarinet at the age of nine and studied at the Mastbaum School in Philadelphia, where one of his classmates was
Buddy DeFranco
Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco (February 17, 1923 – December 24, 2014) was an Italian-American jazz clarinetist. In addition to his work as a bandleader, DeFranco led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for almost a decade in the 1960s and ...
. As a teenager he played in Philadelphia bands with
Charlie Ventura
Charlie Ventura (born Charles Venturo; December 2, 1916 – January 17, 1992) was an American tenor saxophonist and bandleader from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
Career
During the 1940s, Ventura played saxophone for the bands o ...
and
Bill Harris. He studied classically with Joseph Gigliotti of the
Philadelphia Orchestra and Leon Russianoff at the
Manhattan School of Music.
Career
From 1942 to 1944, he was a member of the
Bob Chester
Bob Chester (March 20, 1908 – October 29, 1966) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader and tenor saxophonist.
He was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Chester's stepfather ran General Motors's Fisher Body Works. He began his ...
big band, then spent the next two years with the
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his dea ...
Orchestra.
Beginning in 1947, he studied with
Lennie Tristano
Leonard Joseph Tristano (March 19, 1919 – November 18, 1978) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and teacher of jazz improvisation.
Tristano studied for bachelor's and master's degrees in music in Chicago before moving to New Yo ...
. With
Teo Macero
Attilio Joseph "Teo" Macero (October 30, 1925 – February 19, 2008) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years. Macero produced Miles Davis' '' Bitches Brew'', and ...
and
Charles Mingus he was a member of the
Jazz Composers Workshop, trying to combine jazz with classical music.
In the classical world, he worked with
Boston Pops
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart.
Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Sym ...
,
Leonard Bernstein,
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...
, and
Igor Stravinsky. In jazz he worked with
Kenny Clarke
Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914January 26, 1985), nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride cymbal to keep time rather than the hi-ha ...
,
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
,
Dizzy Gillespie,
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
,
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987) was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time.
Rich was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, ...
, and
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most ...
.
On August 12, 1956, La Porta was invited to the first jazz concert in Venezuela at Caracas National Theater, where he was backed by the Casablanca Orchestra, Charlie Nagy, Werner Boehm, Walter Albrecht, among others. During his stay in Caracas a selection of the repertoire performed at the concert was released under the title ''South American Brothers'' by
Fantasy Records
Fantasy Records is an American independent record label company founded by brothers Max and Sol Stanley Weiss in 1949. The early years of the company were dedicated to issuing recordings by jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, who was also one of its invest ...
, the first jazz recording in Venezuela.
He taught at Parkway Music School, then at public schools on
Long Island, followed by the Manhattan School of Music and the
Berklee College of Music. With guitarist
Jack Petersen, he pioneered the use of Greek
modes
Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine
* ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...
for teaching chord-scales.
Personal life
In the 1990s, he and his wife retired to
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...
, where he performed at the Sarasota Jazz Club and as a guest with the Fred Williams Trio. He wrote his autobiography, ''Playing It by Ear''. LaPorta died from complications of a stroke on May 12, 2004 in Sarasota.
Discography
* ''The John LaPorta Quintet'' (
Debut, 1954)
* ''Three Moods'' (Debut, 1955)
* ''South American Brothers'' (
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
, 1956)
* ''Conceptions'' (Debut, 1956)
* ''The Clarinet Artistry of John LaPorta'' (Debut, 1957)
* ''Theme and Variations'' (Fantasy, 2002)
With
Kenny Clarke
Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914January 26, 1985), nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride cymbal to keep time rather than the hi-ha ...
* ''
Klook's Clique
''Klook's Clique'' is an album led by drummer Kenny Clarke recorded in 1956 and first released on the Savoy label. '' (Savoy, 1956)
With
Charles Mingus
* ''
The Jazz Experiments of Charlie Mingus'' (Bethlehem, 1956)
* ''
Jazz Composers Workshop'' (Savoy, 1956)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laporta, John
Hard bop clarinetists
Swing clarinetists
Bebop clarinetists
Cool jazz clarinetists
American jazz clarinetists
Berklee College of Music faculty
Manhattan School of Music alumni
Musicians from Philadelphia
1920 births
2004 deaths
20th-century American musicians
Jazz musicians from Pennsylvania