Andy Sannella
Encyclopedia
Anthony G. "Andy" Sannella (March 11, 1900 - December 10, 1962) was an American musician
and bandleader
.
Sannella, who was born in Indiana
, was a multiinstrumentalist; according to jazz
historian John Chilton
he played violin
, piano
, organ
, clarinet
, alto saxophone
, guitar
(preferably steel guitar
), banjo
and vibraphone
. Occasionally he also appeared as a singer.
during World War I
, Sannella spent the years 1920-1922 in Panama City
working on violin and alto saxophone with various orchestras. He then settled in New York City
where he played with the bands of Dan Gregory
, Mike Markel and - not least - Ray Miller. With the latter orchestra Sannella seems to have made his first recordings during the years 1923-1925. On these recordings (which also feature jazz notables such as Frank Trumbauer and Miff Mole
) Sannella is mainly featured on clarinet and alto saxophone, but is also heard soloing on bass clarinet
on I Can't Get The One I Want (Brunswick
2643).
(Columbia Records
), Adrian Schubert (Banner Records
and associated labels) and Bert Hirsch (Hit of the Week Records
). Sannella also appears on several recordings directed by Sam Lanin
, but it is not clear whether he also appeared with this orchestra on stage. In addition to working with larger orchestras Sannella also appeared with many smaller studio groups accompanying popular singers of the time such as Art Gillham
, Cliff Edwards
, Frank Crumit
, Seger Ellis
and Johnny Marvin.
In many of the orchestras listed above Sannella was working with the same basic core of fellow musicians, among these not least trumpet player Mike Mosiello
, from whom Sannella seems to have been virtually inseparable during these years, and of whom he still spoke very highly in an interview shortly before his death. Amongst many other things Mosiello and Sannella (together with accordionist Charles Magnante
) formed the nucleus of the prolific house band of the Grey Gull Company
of Boston
during the years 1926-1930. In addition to performing the popular tunes of the day Mosiello and Sannella were allowed to wax several instrumental numbers of their own, often appearing as B-sides on the company's "pop" records. On these records Sannella is mainly featured playing alto saxophone, clarinet and steel guitar, often switching between all these instruments during the same number and thus giving them a very special noticeable sound. Songs credited to Sannella himself issued by Grey Gull include Needin' You and Sleeping Birds.
The Grey Gull records were almost always issued anonymously or under pseudonym
. However, for other labels Sannella was allowed to record with bands under his own name (ranging from trio
s to full dance orchestras) given proper credit. Labels for which Sannella recorded under his own name included Harmony
, Columbia, Okeh
, Victor and Hit of the Week. For Brunswick Sannella also recorded as a steel guitar soloist, his coupling of Sliding On The Frets and Blues Of The Guitar from 1929 (Brunswick 4484) becoming a minor hit and being issued in Europe
as well (Slidin' On The Frets has also been reissued on CD).
Apparently these recordings made Sannella's name familiar enough to make The Selmer Company
, a well known manufacturer of musical instruments, use Sannella's picture in their advertising. Sannella composed Valse Selmer to promote the company's saxophones.
where, among other things, he directed the orchestra on a NBC
show sponsored by Whitman's
. From the late 1940s he also appeared regularly on TV shows for CBS
. By this date Sannella was mainly performing as a pianist and organ player. He also directed a couple of shows on Broadway
.
Now and then Sannella also returned to the recording studios well into the 1950s. Among his last records is an LP
called The Girl Friends (Everest SDBR-1005, issued in 1958) where he plays standards and jazz numbers that have titles consisting of girls' names.
Andy Sannella died of a seizure
on a street in New York.
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
.
Sannella, who was born in Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, was a multiinstrumentalist; according to jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
historian John Chilton
John Chilton
John James Chilton is a British jazz trumpeter and writer. During the 1960s he also worked with pop bands, including The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Escorts....
he played violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, alto saxophone
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(preferably steel guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
), banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
and vibraphone
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
. Occasionally he also appeared as a singer.
Early career with Ray Miller and other bandleaders
Sannella began his musical studies on guitar and violin at the age of ten. After serving in the US NavyUnited States Navy operating forces organization
The structure of the United States Navy consists of four main bodies: the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, the operating forces , and the Shore Establishment....
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Sannella spent the years 1920-1922 in Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
working on violin and alto saxophone with various orchestras. He then settled in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he played with the bands of Dan Gregory
Dan Gregory
Dan Gregory was an American pianist and bandleader, mainly working in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from the 1920s through the 1940s. However, the band also appeared in New York City during the early 1920s....
, Mike Markel and - not least - Ray Miller. With the latter orchestra Sannella seems to have made his first recordings during the years 1923-1925. On these recordings (which also feature jazz notables such as Frank Trumbauer and Miff Mole
Miff Mole
Irving Milfred Mole, better known as Miff Mole was a jazz trombonist and band leader. He is generally considered as one of the greatest jazz trombonists and credited with creating "the first distinctive and influential solo jazz trombone style." His major recordings included "Slippin' Around",...
) Sannella is mainly featured on clarinet and alto saxophone, but is also heard soloing on bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
on I Can't Get The One I Want (Brunswick
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
2643).
As a studio musician
From the late 1920s onwards Sannella seems to have focused more and more on working as a studio musician rather than appearing with regular working bands. He was very much in demand and was hired by many conductors leading "house bands" for various record companies, including Nat Shilkret and Leonard Joy (both Victor Records), Ben SelvinBen Selvin
Benjamin B. Selvin , son of Russian-immigrant Jewish parents, was a musician, bandleader, record producer and innovator in recorded music. He was known as The Dean of Recorded Music....
(Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
), Adrian Schubert (Banner Records
Banner Records
Banner Records was a United States based record label of the 20th century.Banner Records was launched in January 1922 by the Plaza Music Company of New York City. Banner was an extremely popular label in the 1920s, concentrating on popular music of the day. To this day, Banners are often found all...
and associated labels) and Bert Hirsch (Hit of the Week Records
Hit of the Week Records
Hit of the Week Records was a record label based in the United States of America in the early 1930s. Distinctively, "Hit of the Week"s were made not of shellac as was usual for gramophone record of the era, but of a patented blend of paper and resin called Durium...
). Sannella also appears on several recordings directed by Sam Lanin
Sam Lanin
Sam Lanin was an American jazz bandleader.Lanin's brothers, Howard and Lester, were also bandleaders, and all of them had sustained, successful careers in music. Lanin was one of ten children born to Russian-Jewish immigrants who emigrated to Philadelphia in the decade of the 1900s...
, but it is not clear whether he also appeared with this orchestra on stage. In addition to working with larger orchestras Sannella also appeared with many smaller studio groups accompanying popular singers of the time such as Art Gillham
Art Gillham
Art Gillham, , was an American songwriter, who was among the first crooners as a pioneer radio artist and a recording artist for Columbia Records....
, Cliff Edwards
Cliff Edwards
Cliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...
, Frank Crumit
Frank Crumit
Frank Crumit was an American singer, composer. radio entertainer and vaudeville star. He shared his radio programs with his wife, Julia Sanderson, and the two were sometimes called "the ideal couple of the air."...
, Seger Ellis
Seger Ellis
Seger Ellis was a jazz pianist and vocalist. He also made a few brief film appearances, most notably in collaboration with director Ida Lupino....
and Johnny Marvin.
In many of the orchestras listed above Sannella was working with the same basic core of fellow musicians, among these not least trumpet player Mike Mosiello
Mike Mosiello
Mike Mosiello was an Italian-born American trumpet player.- Biography :...
, from whom Sannella seems to have been virtually inseparable during these years, and of whom he still spoke very highly in an interview shortly before his death. Amongst many other things Mosiello and Sannella (together with accordionist Charles Magnante
Charles Magnante
Charles Magnante was an American piano-accordionist, arranger, composer, author and educator. His artistry helped raise the image of the accordion from an instrument considered suitable only for folk music to an instrument accepted in many music genres.- Background :Magnante's father was a...
) formed the nucleus of the prolific house band of the Grey Gull Company
Grey Gull Records
Grey Gull Records was a record label based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America from 1919 through 1930. According to the Massachusetts Department of Corporation and Taxation, Grey Gull was officially incorporated on 31 December 1919. It was dissolved on 31 March 1934 Grey Gull...
of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
during the years 1926-1930. In addition to performing the popular tunes of the day Mosiello and Sannella were allowed to wax several instrumental numbers of their own, often appearing as B-sides on the company's "pop" records. On these records Sannella is mainly featured playing alto saxophone, clarinet and steel guitar, often switching between all these instruments during the same number and thus giving them a very special noticeable sound. Songs credited to Sannella himself issued by Grey Gull include Needin' You and Sleeping Birds.
Recordings in his own name
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
. However, for other labels Sannella was allowed to record with bands under his own name (ranging from trio
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
s to full dance orchestras) given proper credit. Labels for which Sannella recorded under his own name included Harmony
Harmony Records
Harmony Records was a label owned by Columbia Records. It was originally used as a label for low-price 78 rpm records in the 1920s and 1930s; subsequently it was revived as a label for budget albums of reissued tracks during the 1950s with nine or ten songs per album...
, Columbia, Okeh
Okeh Records
Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...
, Victor and Hit of the Week. For Brunswick Sannella also recorded as a steel guitar soloist, his coupling of Sliding On The Frets and Blues Of The Guitar from 1929 (Brunswick 4484) becoming a minor hit and being issued in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
as well (Slidin' On The Frets has also been reissued on CD).
Apparently these recordings made Sannella's name familiar enough to make The Selmer Company
The Selmer Company
Henri Selmer Paris company is a French family-owned enterprise, manufacturer of musical instruments based in Paris, France in 1885. It is known for its high-quality woodwind and brass instruments, especially saxophones, clarinets and trumpets...
, a well known manufacturer of musical instruments, use Sannella's picture in their advertising. Sannella composed Valse Selmer to promote the company's saxophones.
Later career: radio, theatre and television work
Beginning with 1932 Sannella's appearances on records became increasingly rarer. Instead he was heard frequently on radioRadio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
where, among other things, he directed the orchestra on a NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
show sponsored by Whitman's
Whitman's
Whitman's is one of America's largest and oldest brands of boxed chocolates. Whitman's confections have been produced since 1842, originally by Stephen Whitman in Philadelphia and currently by Russell Stover Candies...
. From the late 1940s he also appeared regularly on TV shows for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. By this date Sannella was mainly performing as a pianist and organ player. He also directed a couple of shows on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
.
Now and then Sannella also returned to the recording studios well into the 1950s. Among his last records is an LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
called The Girl Friends (Everest SDBR-1005, issued in 1958) where he plays standards and jazz numbers that have titles consisting of girls' names.
Andy Sannella died of a seizure
Seizure
An epileptic seizure, occasionally referred to as a fit, is defined as a transient symptom of "abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain". The outward effect can be as dramatic as a wild thrashing movement or as mild as a brief loss of awareness...
on a street in New York.
Sources
- John ChiltonJohn ChiltonJohn James Chilton is a British jazz trumpeter and writer. During the 1960s he also worked with pop bands, including The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Escorts....
: Who's Who of Jazz (5th edition, London 1989) - Ate Van Delden: liner notes for the CD Ray Miller and his Brunswick Orchestra 1924-1929 (Timeless Historical CBC 1-066)
- Brian RustBrian RustBrian Rust , was an English jazz discographer.Brian Arthur Lovell Rust was born in London, and collected records from the age of five. He worked in the BBC's record library from 1945 to 1960, and supervised broadcasting selections...
: The American Dance Band Discography 1917-1942 (New Rochelle, New York 1975) - Brian RustBrian RustBrian Rust , was an English jazz discographer.Brian Arthur Lovell Rust was born in London, and collected records from the age of five. He worked in the BBC's record library from 1945 to 1960, and supervised broadcasting selections...
: Jazz Records 1897-1942 (5th edition, Chigwell, Essex 1983) - John Wilby & Laurens Hertzdahl: liner notes for the CD Grey Gull Rarities (Jazz Oracle BDW 8038)