Mike Cuozzo
American jazz saxophonist
Michael Antonio Cuozzo (June 12, 1925 – April 2, 2006) was an American jazz saxophonist and businessman.
Early life
Cuozzo was born in Newark, New Jersey. He left high school to tour with Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm in the 1940s.
Career
Cuozzo began his professional career as a tenor saxophonist in Joe Marsala's band. He played for the United Service Organizations in World War II, and was part of Elliot Lawrence's band in the early-1950s.
In November 1955, he led his own session, recording the album Mighty Mike Cuozzo for Savoy Records. Other personnel on the album were Eddie Costa (vibraphone), Ronnie Ball (piano), Vinnie Burke (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums). Reviewer Marc Myers commented that Cuozzo had a "Ben Webster sound, and his smooth, inventive improvisational style on modernist tracks, blues and ballads was superb." He recorded again in March 1956, on bassist Mort Herbert's album Night People on Savoy. His final recording, again in 1956, was the album Mike Cuozzo with the Costa-Burke Trio, for Jubilee Records, on which he performed with Eddie Costa, Vinnie Burke, and drummer Nick Stabulas. Although Myers describes Cuozzo as "a strong, smart player", Cuozzo did not record again.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mike Cuozzo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.