Dick Stabile

Dick Stabile (May 29, 1909 – September 18, 1980) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader.

Cary Grant, Betsy Drake, Dick Stabile (1955)
Dick Stabile
Stabile in New York in the 1940s
Background information
Birth nameRichard Dominic Stabile
Born(1909-05-29)May 29, 1909
Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedSeptember 18, 1980(1980-09-18) (aged 71)
New Orleans, Louisiana
GenresJazz, big band
Occupation(s)Musician, band leader, music director
InstrumentsSaxophone and clarinet
Years active1928–1980
LabelsDecca, Bluebird, Vocalion
Associated actsBen Bernie, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis

Career

The son of a band leader and violinist, Stabile learned piano and violin at an early age. His father got a job with band leader Vincent Lopez on the condition that he learn saxophone. Seeing his father play, Stabile started playing saxophone, too, and was hired by Jules Ansel at the Brunswick Hotel in Newark. He then went on tour with band leader Ben Bernie, Ansel's cousin,[1] and remained with Bernie from 1928–1935, appearing on Bernie's weekly radio show as lead alto saxophonist and soloist.[2]

In 1935 Stabile started his own ensemble, the All-America "Swing" Band, which featured Bunny Berigan, Dave Barbour, Frank Signorelli, and Stan King.[3] He recorded with vocalists such as Berigan, Paula Kelly, Burt Shaw, and Gracie Barrie, the last of which he would go on to marry. During this time, he recorded for the labels Decca, Bluebird, ARC, and Vocalion/Okeh. His band worked often in hotels in New York City and was chosen to play at the New York World's Fair in 1959–60.

During World War II Stabile led a band while serving in the Coast Guard; Gracie Barrie led his ensemble in his absence. After the war, he moved to Los Angeles and became music director for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and even had a small role as Private Pokey in their film At War with the Army.[4][5]

After spending the latter 1960s leading dance bands at Los Angeles ballrooms, Stabile took a job at the Hotel Roosevelt in New Orleans, where he worked from the middle of the 1970s until his death from a heart attack in 1980.

Vocalists

Evelyn Oaks sang with Stabile's orchestra in 1939,[1] and Paula Kelly sang with him prior to joining the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1941.[6]

Instruments

Stabile designed a line of saxophones and clarinets that carried his name.[7]

Personal life

Stabile was married to and divorced from Gracie Barrie.[8]

Stabile was the cousin of singer Dolly Dawn (aka Theresa Stabile)[9]

Discography

As leader
  • Dick Stabile Plays for You (Bethlehem, 1957)
  • At the Statler (Tops, 1957)
  • Dancing on the Sunset Strip (King, 1959)
  • This Cat Really Blows! (Dot, 1960)
gollark: Or probably weapon attacks at all.
gollark: Or any time, really.
gollark: There would be no photon torpedoes at this time.
gollark: ```Cold Ones (also ice giants, the Finality, Lords of the Last Waste)Mythological beings who dwell at the end of time, during the final blackness of the universe, the last surviving remnants of the war of all-against-all over the universe’s final stocks of extropy, long after the passing of baryonic matter and the death throes of the most ancient black holes. Savage, autocannibalistic beings, stretching their remaining existence across aeons-long slowthoughts powered by the rare quantum fluctuations of the nothingness, these wretched dead gods know nothing but despair, hunger, and envy for those past entities which dwelled in eras rich in energy differentials, information, and ordered states, and would – if they could – feast on any unwary enough to fall into their clutches.Stories of the Cold Ones are, of course, not to be interpreted literally: they are a philosophical and theological metaphor for the pessimal end-state of the universe, to wit, the final triumph of entropy in both a physical and a spiritual sense. Nonetheless, this metaphor has been adopted by both the Flamic church and the archai themselves to describe the potential future which it is their intention to avert.The Cold Ones have also found a place in popular culture, depicted as supreme villains: perhaps best seen in the Ghosts of the Dark Spiral expansion for Mythic Stars, a virtuality game from Nebula 12 ArGaming, ICC, and the Void Cascading InVid series, produced by Dexlyn Vithinios (Sundogs of Delphys, ICC).```
gollark: And it's all just horribly dense spaghetti code.

References
  1. "Dick Stabile To Play For Exchange Club". The Evening Standard. April 28, 1939. p. 18. Retrieved October 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Stabile, Joe E. "Dick Stabile by Joe E. Stabile". Dick Stabile. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  3. "(Lakewood ad)". The Plain Speaker. April 15, 1936. p. 18. Retrieved October 13, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Simon, George T. (1974). The Big Bands. Collier Books. P. 479.
  5. Jordan, Steve, and Tom Scanlan. Rhythm Man: Fifty Years in Jazz. University of Michigan Press, 1991, p. 89.
  6. "Swing era lives again". The Courier-Gazette. April 27, 1978. p. 11. Retrieved October 13, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "(Penn State Music and Sports Supply House ad)". The Daily Courier. April 25, 1940. p. 5. Retrieved October 13, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Winchell, Walter (October 24, 1945). "Walter Winchell Coast-To-Coast". Naugatuck Daily News. p. 4.
  9. Douglas Martin. "Dolly Dawn, 86, Who Sang Center Stage in the Big Band Era - The New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2019-11-13.
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