Pete Candoli


Walter Joseph "Pete" Candoli was an American jazz trumpeter. He played with the big bands of Woody Herman and Stan Kenton and worked in the studios of the recording and television industries.

Career

A native of Mishawaka, Indiana, Candoli was the older brother of Conte Candoli.
During the 1940s he was a member of big bands led by Sonny Dunham, Will Bradley, Ray McKinley, Tommy Dorsey, Teddy Powell, Woody Herman, Boyd Raeburn, Tex Beneke, and Jerry Gray. For his ability to hit high notes on the trumpet he was given the nickname "Superman". While he was a member of Woody Herman's First Herd, he sometimes wore a Superman costume during his solo. In the 1950s he belonged to the bands of Stan Kenton and Les Brown and in Los Angeles began to work as a studio musician. His studio work included recording soundtracks for the movies Bell, Book and Candle, Private Hell 36, Day the World Ended , Peter Gunn, Save the Tiger, The Man with the Golden Arm, and The Prisoner of Second Avenue; appearing with The Tonight Show Band; and acting in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet ; Kings Go Forth ; Touch of Evil ; 'Pete', in three episodes of Johnny Staccato ; Porgy and Bess ; as trumpet player 'Johnny', in "The Hand", an episode of Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond, 1959 ; as the 'Spokesman', in one episode of The Untouchables ; Monsanto Night Presents Michel Legrand, a 1972 TV special, in which he played 'Mos Santos'; a bartender and trumpet player in the short film, Tarzana ; and as 'Sam Johnson', in one episode of Hotel, among others.
Pete Candoli and his brother Conte formed a band that performed in the late 1950s and early 1960s and intermittently from the 1970s to the 1990s. In the early 1970s he performed in nightclubs with his second wife, singer Edie Adams. Heart surgery delayed his career at the end of the 1970s, but he returned to performing at musical festivals and with Lionel Hampton. He reunited with the Woody Herman band for its fifty-and sixtieth anniversary concerts.
Candoli was featured in the cartoon series The Ant and the Aardvark, which used a jazz score for its theme and musical cues.
Candoli died of complications from prostate cancer on January 11, 2008, at the age of 84. Conte Candoli died of cancer as well in 2001.

Awards and honors

Discography

As leader

  • For Peter's Sake
  • Blues, When Your Lover Has Gone
  • Moscow Mule and Many More Kicks
  • From the Top
  • Live at the Royal Palms Inn Vol. 9 with Bill Perkins, Carl Fontana
With Conte Candoli
  • The Brothers Candoli
  • Bell, Book, and Candoli
  • 2 for the Money
  • There Is Nothing Like a Dame
  • Candoli Brothers
  • ''Two Brothers''

As sideman

With Glen Gray
  • Sounds of the Great Bands!
  • Sounds of the Great Bands Volume 2
  • Solo Spotlight
  • Please Mr. Gray
  • Themes of the Great Bands
With Woody Herman
  • Woody Herman and the Herd at Carnegie Hall
  • The Thundering Herds
  • The First Herd at Carnegie Hall
  • Live at Carnegie Hall
  • The Turning Point 1943–1944
With Stan Kenton
With Peggy Lee
  • Black Coffee
  • Things Are Swingin'
  • Blues Cross Country
With Henry Mancini
  • The Music from Peter Gunn
  • More Music from Peter Gunn
  • The Blues and the Beat
  • Combo!
  • Uniquely Mancini
  • The Concert Sound of Henry Mancini
  • Henry Mancini's Golden Album
  • Gunn...Number One!: Music from the Film Score
  • Mancini '67
  • Mancini Concert
With Skip Martin
  • The Music from Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
  • 8 Brass, 5 Sax, 4 Rhythm
  • Scheherajazz
  • Swingin' with Prince Igor
  • Songs and Sounds from the Era of the Untouchables
  • Perspectives in Percussion: Volume 2
  • Swingin' Things from Can-Can
With Mark Murphy
With Ted Nash
With Shorty Rogers
With Pete Rugolo
With others