Frank Rosolino, Trombonist: Part Two

By Theodore Sares

I ended my first article about this extraordinary musician with the following quote: Frank was a fantastic musician, but behind that cut-up personality was a troubled man." – Benny Carter" I'll start this one with a quote as well...one from Frank's friend, Roger Kellaway, who said, "When somebody cracks four jokes a minute, we all should have known there was something wrong."

In recent days, I have had the opportunity to talk with Frank's companion, Diane Armesto, who enlightened me on much of Frank's background as well on some misconceptions. But far more importantly, she sent an album entitled "Frank Rosolino, The Last recording," recorded at Gold Star Studio A on August 1, 1978 and released by Sea Breeze Records, Pismo Beach, California just this month. More specifically, "Frank Rosolino - The Last Recording" - Sea Breeze Jazz SBJ-3080, 1978 Recording 2006 Release, 54:30. All the tracks are incredible, but there is one in particular, Erroll Garner's "Misty," which made me pull over to the side of the road and listen...or rather, be mezmorized by it.....over and over again. Keeping in mind that the sides were recorded just four months prior to that fateful night in November, 1978, the sense of what I was hearing took on a surreal and spiritual quality. It was almost as if Frank was reaching out...trying to tell us something with his horn....

As Jeff Krow states on his promotion for this CD, "Frank was placed with a then dream rhythm section of Larry Willis on piano, the incomparable Billy Higgins on drums, and the relatively unknown Kevin Brandon on bass. Song selections were all standards, with the exception of two takes of Rosolino's own Waltz for Diane. There are also two takes of Erroll Garner's Misty and the same goes for Jimmy Van Heusen's I Thought About You. On Misty, Kevan Brandon gets a nice extended bass solo and Willis is featured prominently on most every track....."

During these recordings at least, his passions must have suppressed his demons and his highs (that could only be reached by his "putting the horns to his lips, closing his eyes and blowing like only he could") seemed to have pushed aside, for the moment anyway, his depression. Something was going on here that I have never before heard on a trombone (and I grew up in a musical family). His double tonguing techniques and perfect pitch on Misty have to be heard to be be believed..........and the fluidity and incredible speed with which he works through the paces are breathtaking. As Diane says in her inspiring linear notes, "Incredible speed, time, technique......stunning range of musical ideas....fantastic melodic/harmonic sensibility, rhythmic placement and swing feel...and enough turmoil in his personal life to perhaps inspire what trombonist John Fedchock refers to his playing as a 'soulful presence of the blues. ' Frank's decision to use a Conn Multivider was an "exploration in sound" that provided the creation of additional octaves from the original sound. The result has the effect of an "electric" trombone that truly sounds as if two or more trombones were being played in unison, yet still preserves Frank's artistic integrity. It is a haunting sound, one that I will not soon forget.

".......enough turmoil in his personal life..." Who really knows what sequence of events finally cascaded into the tragedy of that night. I cannot imagine anything worse than when a confluence of events come together and leave one with no viable options or emotional escape hatch. In Frank's case, I will not even begin to surmise what was going on in his head during the fall months of 1978; I'll leave that to Diane. However, when my brother Arthur, another virtuoso and great lyrical trombonist, passed away last October, I had plenty of time to think about the frustrations and turmoil that marked his 81 years of life as I sat by his bed for 40 consecutive days until the end came. And during that time, I also learned a lot about how highly talented artists try so hard never to sacrifice their artistic integrity....and it was a painful revelation, indeed.

Art, whose IQ was off the charts, had his own marital difficulties and his own eccentricities...or maybe even demons (don't we all), though at the end he was married to a true angel before sadly she predeceased him by a year. But getting back to Frank, I think some of the inner torture, maybe a big part, had to do with frustration. To paraphrase author Gene Lees when speaking of Frank, the heartache of tough financial times combined with the searing frustration of seeing himself and other highly talented and academically trained musicians struggling to make it. And this, while bile-inducing, so-called rock stars, touted as "artists," rode around in studio limo's with members of their swarmy entourage. I had witnessed this with my brother and though he rarely discussed it, I knew it ate away at him.......and justifiably so. Indeed, there are so many wonderful and talented musicians who go unappreciated while they are with us. I do know that my brother was at his happiest when he had his horn to his lips and his eyes closed...and now I think I might even know why.

I will not try to seek resolution regarding this tragedy nor have I attempted to. I never try to make sense out of the senseless, for that is an endless loop. I do know, however, that one's control, or the illusion of one's control, can be taken away at any time by the random, sudden and scary nature of death. Suffice it to say we lost an extraordinary virtuoso on the trombone, one who inspired with his music. And as Diane Armesto suggests, I have been able to transform the horror of what took place into compassion for this man's fragile psychological state and the madness that must have tortured and consumed him.

By listening to the pieces on this extraordinary CD, there is a "soulful presence of the blues" that is unmistakable. The music is all about a man with his horn to his lips and eyes closed who is safely ensconced in his sanctuary. And that's the way I choose to remember him.There were four: Carl, J.J., Kai, and Frank. Now they are all gone.

Ted Sares, PhD, is a private investor and entrepreneur who lives and writes in the beautiful and secluded White Mountain area of Northern New Hampshire with his wife, Holly and Min Pin, Jackdog. He writes a bi-weekly column for a local newspaper and is a regular contributor to the NH Business Review. He specializes in columns, articles, essays, op-eds, and short stories. Many of his works are widely published. His works focus on issues and themes dealing with socio-political topics, business and economics (in which he advocates a free market approach to capitalism), patriotism, and matters dealing with individual freedom.They are frequently inspirational in nature and sometimes reflect the Objectivist philosophy of novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. Ted is also a boxing historian and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.