Norman Amadio

Albert Norman Benedict "Norm" Amadio (April 14, 1928 in Timmins, Ontario) is a piano teacher, music coach, composer, arranger, session player, band leader, jazz pianist and accompanist. For a span of fifty years he worked for the CBC as an orchestra leader and musical director for many TV series. In 1954, he became the first Canadian to play at Birdland.

In 1943, he performed at a Victory Bond concert with Gracie Fields, and was asked to travel on a Canadian tour; his parents denied him permission because of his age. Norman eventually left Timmins for Toronto when he was 17 to continue studying music with Boris Berlin at the Royal Conservatory. He played jazz after hours, influenced by the Be-bop pianists.^[1] Subsequently Amadio was influential in starting the music scene in Toronto,^[1] attracting many jazz greats from Canada and the US to sit in with him.

Amadio's musical career went on to include a great deal of studio work and close to a hundred CD recordings for various Canadian artists such as Moe Koffman, Ray Back with the Ed Sullivan Orchestra, The Tommy Ambrose Orchestra, Phyllis Marshall, Don (D.T.) Thompson and most recently with Guido Basso, Marc Jordan, and many more.

For a span of fifty years he worked for the CBC as an orchestra leader and musical director for many TV series including Hit Parade 1953-1957, The Tommy Ambrose Show 1956-57, Wayne & Shuster, Take 30 in 1961, Swing Gently, Music Hop^[1] 1963-1967, and Down Home Country, and TV specials with Jane Eastwood, Kenny Rogers, Robert Goulet, Mel Tormé, Al Hirt, Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle to name only a few. Norman Amadio also performed a 2 hour special live-broadcast in the CBC Special: 100 Years of Canada with the 40-piece Norman Amadio Orchestra.

Then with his trio, the Norman Amadio Trio, he worked at the Old Town Tavern for fifteen years. Word traveled to the United States about Norman's playing and American superstars in jazz began to flock to Toronto to work with him. Some of the American jazz stars who came to work with Norman's Trio in Canada included: Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Zoot Sims, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Chet Baker, Anita O'Day, Bud Johnson, Sonny Stitt, Miles Davis, Carmen MacRae, Joe Williams, Carol Sloane, Dinah Washington, Red Mitchell, Phip Phillips, Maxine Sullivan, Irene Krall and Lee Konitz.

Later with the Norman Amadio Orchestra, he backed Broadway and Las Vegas Stars at the Royal York Hotel's Imperial Room between 1987 to 1990 including Bobby Darrin, The Drifters, The Coasters, The Inkspots, Phyllis Diller, Eddie Fisher and the list goes on. At the O'keefe Centre Norman worked with names like Judy Garland, Paul Anka, Englebert Humperdinck, Red Skelton, The Supremes and Bob Hope. He also worked with people like Milton Berle, Jackie Mason, Phil foster, The Smothers Brothers and Steve Lawrence at other venues.

The list of Canadian musicians and vocalists Norman Amadio has worked with is too long to mention, but some musicians include Rob McConnell, Ed Bickert, Haygood Hardy, Jerry Fuller, Don Vickery, Bob Schilling, Bob Price, Alex Lazaroff, Moe Koffman, Ed Bickert, Neil Swainson, George Koller, Reg Schwager, Steve Wallace, Bill Mulhal and Phil Dwyer.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Amadio, Norm". The Canadian Encyclopaedia. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0000065. Retrieved 2010-11-26. 

External links

• Canadian Jazz Archive^{[dead link]}
• Lula Lounge
• MPC Music

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Name	Amadio, Norm
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Date of birth	April 14, 1928
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