Ray Biondi, Guitar, 1905, Cicero, Ill
Ray was a guitarist, violinist, trumpeter, and mandolin player. He was seldom out of work. He started with the violin, and by the time he was working professionally he was performing with the other instruments as well. Between the mid '20s and the mid '30s Ray worked mainly in the Chicago area where he recorded with Wingy Manone and Danny Altier. In 1936 he moved to New York and worked with Eddie Condon and then Joe Marsala. After working with Gene Krupa in the mid '40s, Biondi returned to Chicago where he settled permanently. During the'50s he played and recorded with Louis Armstrong, Woody Herman, and Art Hodes. Many musicians study more than one instrument during their youth but usually settle on one for their career. What's unusual about Ray Biondi is his professional career involved all the instruments he had mastered. Ray Biondi died in 1981.
Bruce Turner, Sax & Clarinet, 1922, Saltburn, England
Bruce taught himself to play the clarinet while in school, and took up the alto sax while serving in the RAF during the second world war. Turner was another of the musicians capable of playing many styles equally well. He started with a bop group and then switched to playing dixieland with Freddy Randall in the late '40s. He led a quartet aboard the Queen Mary, and while visiting New York he managed to study with Lee Konitz. From the mid '50s to the mid '60s Bruce led his own band, The Jump Band. Turner's style of playing is highly individual, although it does reflect the influence of Pete Brown as well as that of Charlie Parker and Lee Konitz. When Bruce plays the soprano sax he sounds much like Bob Wilbur. He is extremely self-critical and continually analyzes his own performances, and therefore always strives for perfection.
