Trumpeter Conte Candoli was born in Mishawaka, Indiana on this date in 1927. Known to many Americans as member of Doc Severinsen’s Tonight Show Band, Candoli had a long career as a studio musician and as a member of a number of notable big bands in the 1940s and 1950s.

Between his sophomore and junior years in high school Secondo “Conte” Candoli sat in with the Woody Herman band and joined the group full time after he graduated in 1945. His older brother Pete Candoli was also a trumpet player in that group. Conte spent the next decade touring with Herman, Stan Kenton, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman before settling in southern California and joining up with Shorty Rodgers and the Lighthouse All-Stars.

While in Los Angeles Conte Candoli had a busy schedule of studio work for television, movies and recording sessions and joined the Tonight Show Band on a permanent basis when Johnny Carson moved the show to Burbank in 1972. Candoli was active as a clinician at jazz festivals. He also played with such luminaries as Sammy Davis, Jr., Sarah Vaughan and Gerry Mulligan and played on all of the Frank Sinatra television specials. He was often the featured soloist with the Charlie Parker tribute band Supersax, as well.

Conte Candoli was inducted into the International Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997 and died of prostate cancer at his home in Palm Desert, California at the age of 74 in 2001.

Here is a link to Conte Candoli playing his own composition Secret Passion:

"SECRET PASSION"