Danny Barcelona (July 23, 1929 – April 1, 2007) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

drummer best known for his years with Louis Armstrong's All-Stars. He was a

Filipino-American Filipino Americans ( fil, Mga Pilipinong Amerikano) are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos and other Asian ethnicities in North America were first documented in the 16th century as slaves and prisoners on ships sailing to and from New ...

born in

Waipahu Waipahu () is a former sugarcane plantation town and now census-designated place (CDP) located in the Ewa District on the island of Oahu in the City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP population was 43,4 ...

, a community of

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, Hawaii. He was also frequently introduced to audiences by Louis Armstrong as The Little Filipino Boy. Armstrong usually followed up by calling himself ''the little Arabian boy''.Hale, James. Danny Barcelona, Drums, Armstrong All-Star
Retrieved July 4, 2007Biography for Danny Barcelona, Internet Movie Database Inc. and IMdB.com, 2007
Retrieved July 4, 2007Louis Armstrong: In Chicago 1962, Tracking List and Personnel, Storyville Records and StoryVilleRecords.com (undated)
Retrieved July 4, 2007

Career

At the age of 18 and in his final year in high school, Barcelona was already playing music with

trombonist The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

, singer, and bandleader

Trummy Young James "Trummy" Young (January 12, 1912 – September 10, 1984) was an American trombonist in the swing era. He established himself as a star during his 12 years performing with Louis Armstrong in Armstrong's All Stars. He had one hit with his v ...

. Barcelona was a self-taught percussionist. Young and Barcelona met in the mid-1940s. Danny Barcelona was introduced to Louis Armstrong by Young in 1956 and became Armstrong's drummer for 15 years. A

native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawa ...

, Barcelona had joined Young's Hawaii All-Stars in the early 1950s, later assuming leadership of the band – a sextet known as the ''Hawaiian Dixieland All-Stars'' – when Young left to join Louis Armstrong's

combo Combo may refer to: Technology *Combo television unit, a television with either a VCR or a DVD player built into a single unit * Combo drive, a type of optical drive that can read CDs and DVDs *A guitar amplifier incorporating one or more loudsp ...

in 1952. Barcelona toured around the Hawaiian Islands, Japan and the rest of the Far East. In the fall of 1957, Barcelona moved to New York City. Barcelona, again through Trummy Young's recommendation, formally joined Armstrong's All-Stars band in February 1958 to replace retiring drummer

Barrett Deems Barrett Deems (March 1, 1914 – September 15, 1998) was an American swing drummer from Springfield, Illinois, United States. He worked in bands led by Jimmy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Red Norvo, and Muggsy Spanier. In ''High Society'', a 195 ...

. Barcelona appears on more than 130 of Armstrong's recordings. Barcelona was only 27 years old when he was introduced by Young to Armstrong. Here are performance video clips of Danny being introduced by Louie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyLjbMBpGDA Danny doing a drum solo with Louie in Germany: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiesDcZVP_k Barcelona's recording career with Armstrong included the jazz music hits " Hello, Dolly!" (1964) and "

What a Wonderful World "What a Wonderful World" is a song written by Bob Thiele (as "George Douglas") and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and released in 1967 as a single. It topped the pop chart in the United Kingdom, but performed poor ...

" (1968). With Armstrong and Young, Barcelona traveled the world, including trips to Denmark, Germany and Rhodesia, Africa. Barcelona's drumming style was described by T. Dennis Brown in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'' as being "characterized by extensive use of the ride cymbal, crisp, clean fills and breaks, and solos that exploit asymmetrical phrasing". After Armstrong's illness in 1971 and his death on July 6 of that year, Barcelona returned to Hawaii and became a longtime performer at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel, where he played with Bernie Halmann and Melveen Leed. He also worked for many years at Harry's Music Store and the Easy Music Center. In 1979, Barcelona returned to the mainland and settled with his family in

Monterey Park, California Monterey Park is a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, approximately from the Downtown Los Angeles civic center. The city's motto is "Pride in the past, Faith in the future". Mo ...

.Chadbourne, Eugene. All Music Group, Verve, The Verve Music Group (undated)
Retrieved July 4, 2007Astrid. Danny Barcelona RIP, JazzReview.com, Saturday, April 7, 2007 and Sunday, April 15, 2007
an

Retrieved July 4, 2007 ttp://starbulletin.com/2007/04/06/news/story11.html Star-Bulletin Staff (citydesk@starbulletin.com). Danny Barcelona /1929-2007, Jazz Drummer Played with Louis Armstrong, April 6, 2007 Retrieved July 4, 2007Danny Barcelona Photograph and Caption, StarBulletin.com, April 6, 2007
Retrieved July 4, 2007

Personal

Barcelona died in Monterey Park, CA on Sunday, April 1, 2007, due to complications from cancer at the age of 77. He was survived by his wife Dee Barcelona; his two daughters, Dana Barcelona-Bonner and Jodi Barcelona; his brother, Jose "Sonny" Barcelona; five grandchildren; and one great grandchild. His wife Dee was once a member of the Morgan Sisters singing trio. Danny Barcelona and Dee Thrasher met while the latter was performing with her two sisters at the Waikiki Hotel. Barcelona's contemporary players in the jazz music industry at the time were

Gabe Baltazar Gabriel Ruiz Hiroshi Baltazar Jr. (November 1, 1929 – June 12, 2022) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and woodwind doubler. Background and early years His mother, born Chiyoko Haraga on a Hawaii sugarcane plantation, was the daughter of ...

, Frank Kamano, Porkie Britto (b) and Bobby Kamano.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barcelona, Danny 1929 births 2007 deaths American jazz drummers Dixieland drummers American musicians of Filipino descent Musicians from Honolulu Deaths from cancer in California 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians

Career

Personal

See also

References