Pete Candoli, 84, Jazz Trumpeter
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Pete Candoli, one of the top high-note lead trumpeters in jazz who performed with some of the leading figures of the big-band era, has died. He was 84.
From a childhood in Mishawaka, Ind., Candoli forged a six-decade career and was featured in bands led by Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Tex Beneke and Les Brown.
While with Herman’s First Herd during World War II, he became known for his excellent high register work and even wore a Superman costume while performing the specialty number “Superman With a Horn.”
He moved to the West Coast in the early 1950s and established himself as a studio musician. He can be heard on two of Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn” albums , Candoli arranged and conducted for Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, and Peggy Lee. Frank Sinatra flew him to Las Vegas for gigs.
A gifted showman, Pete Candoli perfected a gravelly throated impression of Louis Armstrong that became near-legendary.
“The first time I did my version of Louis was when I was touring in Japan with Benny Carter and a bunch of all-stars,” Pete Candoli told jazz writer Don Heckman some years ago. “At that time the biggest thing in Japan other than the national anthem was ‘When You’re Smiling.’ So when somebody found out I could sing like Louis—that was it, I had to do it at every concert.”
Born June 28, 1923, Pete Candoli was encouraged to take up music by his factory-worker father. His father performed in an Italian marching band in Mishawaka, and Candoli and his brother Conte, also a horn player, grew up in a house full of instruments, including the trombone and saxophone. In 1941, he began playing with Sonny Dunham’s orchestra, followed by a long string of other name bands, including Herman’s First Herd. While there, he recommended his brother for a job, and Herman ended up hiring him. In the 1970s, Pete Candoli established a nightclub act with his wife, singer and actress Edie Adams. He sang, danced, played and directed the orchestra.
His marriages to Adams and an earlier marriage to singer-actress Betty Hutton ended in divorce. Conte Candoli died in 2001.
