| Genres: |
Jazz
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| Descriptive "tags": |
jazz • piano jazz
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| Decades Active: |
1990s
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| Links online: |
Wikipedia
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Biography
17 January 1922, Arnold, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 11 October 1996, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Although he lived and worked for most of his life in and around Pittsburgh, Costa’s piano playing elicited glowing praise from Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Tommy Dorsey, Dick Hyman and numerous other jazz stars. He began playing the violin as a small child, at the age of 10 he switched to accordion, finally choosing piano. He studied formally and after leaving school played briefly in New York with a dance band. His career was interrupted by service in the army during World War II but after the war he resumed his studies this time at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He left with degrees in music composition and music education. As he told Hugh W. Glenn, for Jazz Journal International, ‘I completed a degree in music education just in case I was a flop as a professional musician’. He was not. After graduating, in 1951, he promptly began a 16-year job as...
Read the Full Biography of Johnny Costa
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