Jazz Guitarists - V

Artist Info

(source: www.alviola.com)

Al Viola started music early. “I was the youngest child from a big Italian family and we had all kinds of instruments at the house including guitars, mandolins and an upright player piano. My brother, who played mandolin, needed someone to accompany him so he taught me a few chords on guitar to play behind him". Al teamed up with a violinist friend of his who admired Joe Venuti. They used to play duets like Venuti and Eddie Lang around the neighborhood in Brooklyn, performing at Chinese restaurants. "My mother thought I was robbing the bank because I was bringing home twenty-two dollars a week during the depression!”

During a 4 ½ year period in the Army (1942 – 1945), Al met up with pianist Page Cavanaugh. “Page and I were both in the Army band stationed in Sacramento. We also worked together in a dance band along with bassist Lloyd Pratt.” After their discharge, Viola, Page and Pratt formed the Page Cavanaugh Trio, moved to Los Angeles and soon became a very popular attraction. We recorded for RCA Victor, appeared in Five movies, toured the United States, Canada, and Europe doing theaters and clubs, such as “King Cole Room” at the Trocadero and Ciro’s. “There was a special chemistry between the three of us. Page would play an intro, I’d be right there and in less than ten minutes we’d have an arrangement. The trio was a purely instrumental group at first until our manager insisted that we sing. Our whispering unison vocals caught on with songs like ‘The Three Bears’ and ‘Walkin My Baby Back Home.’”

“The first time I met Frank Sinatra was in the late 40’s when he came in to hear the Page Cavanaugh Trio. He liked us so much that he took the Trio to New York with him to perform at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel followed by an appearance at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City". In 1949 Al quit the Trio and stayed in Los Angeles to pursue studio work as a freelance musician. During that time Al worked with some of the big bands such as Harry James, Ray Anthony, Les Brown, and Nelson Riddle. Additionally, Al did work with some jazz groups; Buddy Collette, Red Callendar, Bobby Troup, Terry Gibbs, Shelley Mann and Leroy Vinegar and continued his studies at the California Academy of Music studying classical guitar, harmony and theory. Studio work was plentiful, recording with Frank Sinatra, June Christie, Julie London, Steve Lawrence, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Natalie Cole, Hadda Brooks and Film/TV scores like Billy Jack, Blazing Saddles, Cool Hand Luke, West Side Story, The Godfather, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf.

"When I was working with Bobby Troup one of Sinatra’s buddies heard me and told me that Frank needed a guitar player. I joined Sinatra right after he did Wee Small Hours for Capitol Records around 1954-55". In 1962 as part of the Bill Miller Sextet, Al went on a ten week world tour with Sinatra. Al continued to work with Frank Sinatra on most of his recordings, television specials and his appearances in Las Vegas and Concerts. In 1973, Al accompanied him to the White House when he performed there.

“What I enjoyed most about working with Frank is that he was unpredictable. When I accompanied him, I couldn’t quite predict where he was going, which made it challenging and exciting! He always surprised me on stage. Although he wasn’t known as a jazz singer, he ad-libbed like one and wouldn’t sing a song the same way, twice. I consider myself very fortunate since he seemed to like the way I played behind him. I have traveled the world on tour with Frank Sinatra and enjoyed every minute of it.”

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