Munich's Big-Band legend celebrates 80 toe-tapping years
A sharp wit and a quick sense of humor make it difficult to believe Al Porcino will turn 80 this month. To mark the occasion, the American big-band leader is staging a series of concerts, highlighted by performances on May 13 and 14 at Munich’s Jazzclub Unterfahrt.
When asked about his upcoming birthday, Porcino answers in an unmistakable New York brogue, “I’ve had more highs and lows then 50 musicians together. It’s been quite a life!” And in meeting Al Porcino in his memorabilia-filled living room, I can’t help but concur. Lined with hundreds of albums, CDs, video recordings, photographs and sheets of music, Porcino’s home is as much a testament to big-band history as it is to his own career, which embodies the big-band heyday of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Indeed, his accomplishments as a trumpeter and band leader read like a jazz history textbook and it’s difficult to think of a jazz great with whom he has not played.
It all started one spring day in 1943, when 18-year-old Al Porcino had a lucky break. “It’s an unbelievable story,” he says. “I was working in Manhattan as a photography assistant and practicing the trumpet during my lunch breaks. One day my trumpet teacher calls me up and tells me to hustle down to the Adams Theater.” As it turns out the Louis Prima Orchestra was auditioning trumpeters that day and Porcino was hired. “April 23, 1943. That was the day my career got started. And was that a thrill!” beams the musician.
Opportunities followed in quick succession and evolved into decades of work with the biggest names in jazz, including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Judy Garland, Ray Charles, Mel Torme, Henry Mancini, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.
In the early years, Porcino was active on both the New York and Los Angeles jazz scenes and toured the United States frequently. In 1954, he ex-perienced Europe for the first time, on a one-month tour of Germany and Scandinavia. It left a deep impression. “I really wanted to stay,” he says, “but the band manager wouldn’t let me.” And at that time, there was much more playing to be done in the United States.
Some 20 years and a few European tours later, things looked very different. By the mid-1970s, the popularity of big-band jazz in America had waned, and work for musicians was scarce. After ten difficult years in Los Angeles, Porcino was ready for change. Disheartened and frustrated, he signed on for a one-month engagement in Munich with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band. Again luck and timing played in his favor and the Munich stint blossomed into opportunities in Switzerland and throughout Germany. By the early 1980s, the New Yorker had married and settled permanently in Munich.
That was nearly 25 years ago. And, true to form, Porcino has been making things happen ever since. He found work with the Süddeutsche Rundfunk and as a free-lancer. He has coached at jazz clinics and hosted the “Piano Hour” television show. Since 1987, Porcino has focused primarily on his Munich-based Al Porcino Big Band, with Bavarian Radio concerts, appearances at the Burghausen and Rosenheim jazz festivals and performances at Munich venues like the Jazzclub Unterfahrt, Schlachthof and Nachtcafé.
About his band, he says, “I always play with the best musicians. They all want to play with me because I have the best repertoire.”
Porcino approaches life and music with a rare honesty and his politically unfashionable opinions, most notably outspokenness about the plight of white musicians in the black-dominated jazz industry, have earned him some unfavorable attention.
“If you want to hear the truth, you’ve come to the right place,” he says. However, one indeed senses that these same traits have contributed greatly to Porcino’s enduring success as a performer: honesty, forthrightness, confidence and just a hint of defiance. As if to say, “This is who I am. This is how I play. Take it or leave it.” Thank goodness for us, Porcino’s colleagues and audiences not only take him—they embrace him, and have done so for more than 60 years. Happy birthday Al Porcino! <<<
