Frank Guarente

Frank Guarente may have been the first musician born outside the United States to have impact as a jazz musician and innovator in America. Guarente is particularly unique through his exceptional skills as a trumpeter, composer, and leader, in addition to his witness of, and participation in, the development of New Orleans jazz, New York jazz, and the commercial music scene of the 1930s. There is good evidence that Joe "King" Oliver, Freddie Keppard, and Nick LaRocca influenced Guarente, and that he reciprocated by sharing his "legitimate" music knowledge with them. There is also evidence that Frank Guarente was an influence on Bix Beiderbecke. Guarente was also present in the first wave of American jazz players to invade Europe in the mid-'20s. Francesco Saverio Guarente was born at Montemiletto in Southern Italy on October 5, 1893. He apparently had a formal musical education before emigrating to the United States in 1910 to join one of his brothers in Allentown, PA. Early sources say that Guarente was a member of Creatore's Band, and that he toured the American South with Don Philippini's Symphony Orchestra. This has been put forward as evidence to how Guarente arrived in New Orleans in 1914, though other sources suggest it was for reasons of health. Later sources fail to mention these associations, but note that upon Guarente's arrival in New Orleans he worked in a bank for a time before becoming a full-time musician. Guarente was apparently attracted by the strange new sound of ragtime being played in New Orleans, and must have also felt comforted by the presence of a large Italian community in the city. Many of the earliest white jazz musicians came from this ethnic group. Guarente knew many of the Italian-American musicians like Nick LaRocca and Tony Parenti,...