Caiazza, Nick (actually, Nicholas)
Caiazza, Nick (actually, Nicholas)
Caiazza, Nick (actually, Nicholas), tenor saxophonist, clarinetist; b. New Castle, Pa., March 20, 1914; d. Melrose, Mass., Dec. 1981. He received his first musical instruction from Ralph Gaspare. He left home in 1932, toured the Middle West with the Keystone Serenaders. He toured with Joe Haymes in 1936–37; worked with Muggsy Spanier Ragtimers (Nov.-Dec. 1939), then with Woody Herman (early 1940), before joining Will Bradley-Ray McKinley Band. He worked at Nick’s with Bobby Hackett (late 1940), then stinted with Dick Roger’s Band before joining the Muggsy Spanier Big Band from April 1941. He left during spring 1942; was briefly with Teddy Powell, then with Alvino Rey until touring with the Chico Marx Band in summer 1943. During 1944 and 1945 he made many ’V’ Disc recordings with Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Hot Lips Page, and others. He worked as radio staff musician from the mid–1940s. From 1950 until 1959 he was on Paul Whiteman’s ABC studio staff; during this period he also worked with Tommy Dorsey, Ray McKinley, Benny Goodman, and Billy Butterfield; recorded with the N.Y. Philharmonic Orch. He studied composition with Paul Crestón in N.Y.; in 1960 moved to Boston. Several of his extended compositions have been publicly performed. During the late 1960s he taught at the Berklee School of Music.
—John Chilton, Who’s Who of Jazz/Lewis Porter