Quick Facts
VirgoBiography
William Louis DeArango (20 September 1921 – 26 December 2005) was an American jazz guitarist.
Career
DeArango was self-taught on guitar. While he attended Ohio State University, he played with Dixieland bands at night. After serving in the Army from 1942–44, he moved to New York City and worked first with Don Byas and Ben Webster. A year later, he played on an album with Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. He worked as a sideman with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ike Quebec, Slam Stewart, then led his own band with Terry Gibbs.
In 1947, DeArango returned to Cleveland.In the 1960s he opened up a guitar store and taught guitar lessons.DeArango also performed locally for two decades. He recorded an album with pianist John Williams in 1954. Late in the 1960s, he managed the rock band Henry Tree and performed regularly in the 1970s at the Smiling Dog Saloon in Cleveland with Ernie Krivda and Skip Hadden, mixing hard rock and free jazz.
His next recording was on the album Another Time/Another Place (Muse, 1978) by Barry Altschul, then 298 Bridge Street (1981) by Kenny Werner, and Names (1983) by Jamey Haddad. In 1993, he released his second solo album, Anything Went, with Joe Lovano. He entered a nursing home in 1999 and suffered dementia until his death seven years later, although he continued performing locally until late 2001. Recorded a trio CD with guitarist Michael Bocian and drummer Tom Rainey entitled "I Am The Blues" Recorded by Bart Koster in Cleveland Ohio.
Discography
As leader
- Bill DeArango (EmArcy, 1954)
- Anything Went (GM, 1996)
As sideman
With Milt Jackson
- 2001 Soul Bopper
- 2005 La Ronde Suite
With Dizzy Gillespie
- 1995 The Complete RCA Victor Recordings
- 1996 Dizzier and Dizzier
- 1997 1940–1946
- 1998 Planet Jazz
- 2000 Groovin' High
- 2000 The Rhythm Man
- 2001 Manteca
- 2002 Bebop Professor
With Charlie Parker
- 1972 Six Faces of Jazz
- 1991 Bird & Sarah
- 2003 A Studio Chronicle 1940–1948
With Ike Quebec
- 1999 Swing Hi–Swing Lo
- 2000 The Strong Tenor of Mister Quebec: 1943–1946
With Sarah Vaughan
- 1999 The Man I Love
- 2002 Interlude: 1944–1947
- 2002 Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
- 2002 The Quintessence New York: 1944–1948
- 2003 Nature Boy
- 2003 What More Can a Woman Do?
- 2004 1944–1950
With Charlie Ventura
- 1955 Jumping with Ventura
- 2000 1946–1947
- 2002 Bop for the People
With Ben Webster
- 2002 1946–1951
- 2002 Big Ben
- 2002 Stardust
- 2005 The Two Sides of the Great Tenor: 1932–1951
- 2005 Warm and Mighty
With others
- 1978 Another Time/Another Place, Barry Altschul
- 1982 Rarest Sessions of the '40s, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
- 1983 Names, Jamey Haddad
- 1989 The Big Three, Coleman Hawkins
- 1992 Crazy Rhythms,Charlie Kennedy
- 1997 1945–1946, Slam Stewart
- 1999 1944–1946, Trummy Young
- 1999 Back to Back, Billie Holiday
- 2001 Ella Sings, Chick Swings/Back to Back, Ella Fitzgerald
- 2002 The Continental Sessions, Vol. 1, Edmond Hall/Clyde Hart/Slam Stewart
- 2002 The Quintessence New York – Hollywood: 1944–1947, Erroll Garner
- 2004 The Continental Sessions, Vol. 3, J. C. Heard
- 2005 Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar
- 2014 The Don Byas Collection: 1939–61, Don Byas
