[Dixielandjazz] Billy Catalano Obit

[Steve barbone]

Some of the US Left Coasters may remember Billy Catalano. A Bay area
trumpeter who chose to tour with Stan Kenton over a spot with the San
Francisco Symphony. He backed Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett, Eartha Kitt et al.

He also played at Finocchio's, that famous female impersonator night club in
order to make a decent living.

Yep, those Italians surely have soul.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

William 'Billy' Catalano -- S.F. trumpet player, teacher
Steve Rubenstein, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 19, 2005
 
William "Billy" Catalano, Jr., a lyrical and passionate jazz trumpet player
and teacher who performed in scores of San Francisco nightclubs and theatres
and instructed thousands of young musicians in a career that spanned six
decades, has died. 

Mr. Catalano, 71, died of cancer Friday, July 15, 2005 at his San Francisco
home. 

"His whole life was the trumpet,'' said his wife, saxophonist Amelia
Catalano. "He was known as a screaming, screeching lead player, but it
wasn't all about loudness. The sound of his trumpet was the most gorgeous
thing I ever heard, so full, so sensitive, so fragile.''

Mr. Catalano was equally at home with a Hoagy Carmichael ballad, a Broadway
show tune, a Duke Ellington jazz standard or a classical concerto.

He took up the trumpet as a sixth grader at Denman Middle School in San
Francisco, although the band teacher tried to steer him to the trombone
instead and said young Billy could play trumpet only if he supplied one of
his own. The boy's father, jazz drummer Bill Catalano, spent that night
playing poker and won a silver trumpet on a turn of a card, which Billy
proudly brought to school the next day.

Mr. Catalano was a graduate of San Francisco State University who, in 1956,
turned down an offer to play with the San Francisco Symphony in favor of
joining Stan Kenton's big band in 1957. Catalano recorded with Kenton on
RENDEZVOUS WITH KENTON (October, 1957), BACK TO BALBOA (January, 1958),
several singles and unissued sides in 1958, and THE BALLAD STYLE (May,
1958).  Archie Le Coque was one of his roomates on the Kenton band.  He
toured the United States with Kenton for several years before returning to
San Francisco to play in such nightclubs as Bimbo's, Finocchio's, the
Barbary Coast and the Cellar. As the musical contractor for countless
touring performers and shows, he was in charge of hiring hundreds of local
musicians. 

His trumpet backed up such singers as Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, Peggy
Lee, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, Bette Midler and Marlene Dietrich, and he
appeared with the San Francisco Civic Light Opera, the Joffrey Ballet and
the American Ballet Theater. He also performed in the Golden Gate and
Oakland park bands, and at San Francisco 49ers games.

In 1978, he became the band director at his alma mater, Balboa High School.
Six years later, he began teaching at Denman as well, reviving a long-
dormant instrumental music program at that school.

Mr. Catalano, a slender man who dressed in black and spoke with blunt humor
to his young students, was an inspiring figure at the podium. Rehearsals
would combine music, philosophy, ranting, frantic arm waving and the
occasional well-placed, good-natured insult. When the situation warranted,
Mr. Catalano would lay down his baton, grab his own trumpet and play a
tricky passage the way it ought to be played, effectively ending all
discussion. 

"You're the one that plays the music,'' he would tell his students. "Not the
instrument, the lips, the mouth or the fingers. You."

He retired in 2002 but continued to teach and inspire young musicians,
especially trumpeters. He always seemed to have an old trumpet lying around
to give to a promising youngster, along with a word of encouragement and a
dog- eared instruction book.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by brothers Thomas Catalano of
Pleasanton, Joseph Catalano of Pacifica and Robert Catalano of Surprise,
Ariz. 

A funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Valente Marini Perata
Mortuary, 4840 Mission St., San Francisco.