Al Caiola

Alexander Emil Caiola - September 7, 1920 – November 9, 2016

Al was an American guitarist, composer and arranger, who spanned a variety of music genres including Jazz, Country, Rock & Roll and Pop. He recorded over fifty albums and worked with some of the biggest names in music during the 20th century, including Elvis Presley, Ray Conniff, Ferrante & Teicher, Frank Sinatra, Percy Faith, Astor Piazzolla, Buddy Holly (Rave On), Mitch Miller, and Tony Bennett.

Alexander Emil Caiola was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to Emil Caiola and Genevieve Esposito. His father was employed as a barber.

Al Caiola

At a young age, Al first expressed an interest in a musical career solely as a vocalist. He was soon persuaded by his father to also pursue professional opportunities as an instrumentalist instead. This led him to take up the banjo and subsequently the guitar.

By the age of 11, he emerged as a child prodigy on the guitar and undertook formal studies with Anthony Antone in New York City and subsequently with the guitarist Peter Milano in Jersey City. As a young teenager, he was influenced by the performances of Eddie Lang and Bing Crosby and studied Lang's method book for guitarists closely. By the age of sixteen he appeared as both a vocalist and guitarist on the children's radio program Sally and Sam in collaboration with Tony Mottola. During this time Mottola encouraged Caiola to master new performance techniques.

After returning from military service during World War II, he pursued formal musical studies at the New Jersey College of Music. Over the years, he also completed studies with the guitarist Harry Volpe.

Career

During World War II Al played trumpet with the United States Marine Corps 5th Marine Division Band that also included Bob Crosby.

After returning from the war, he embarked upon an extended engagement as a staff musician on the CBS network from 1946 until 1956. As part of his audition, he was required to appear on shows with Gordon MacRae, Archie Bleyer and the vocalist Patty Clayton. After signing with CBS, he also collaborated on several major network TV productions with Arthur Godfrey (Talent Scouts), Ed Sullivan (Toast of the Town) and Jackie Gleason (The Jackie Gleason Show) under the direction of the conductor Ray Bloch.

Al was also a successful studio musician in the 1950s in New York City. He released some minor records under his own name in that decade. In addition, he performed under the musical direction of John Serry Sr. on an easy listening album for Dot Records in 1956, which received favourable critical reviews in The Billboard magazine and The Cash Box magazine.(Squeeze Play). Later in the decade in 1959, his collaboration with Tony Mottola and Johnny Mathis on the smash album "Open Fire, Two Guitars" for Columbia Records also received favourable reviews.

Some of Al's most notable sessions included Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” and “Dream Lover” Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” Johnny Mathis’ “Chance Are” Del Shannon’s “Runaway” and Buddy Holly’s “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” “True Love Ways” and “Rave On”

Al said this in an interview, speaking about his recording with Buddy Holly:

“I did all of his New York sessions, including ‘Rave On,’ ‘True Love Ways,’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ in 1958. I remember producer Bob Thiele walked out of the booth after a take and said, ‘Buddy, that was great but I didn’t understand one thing you said.’ Holly said, ‘Mr. Thiele, you ain’t supposed to.’ For that date I used a Gretsch Country Club which had good highs. And we all used Ampeg amplifiers".

Buddy Holly didn't play guitar on Rave On, as Thiele wanted him to focus on his best vocal performance. Al also played guitar on the String Sessions. Donald Amone was the second guitar player on Rave On, another New York session guy. Ji Allison and Joe B Mauldin (The Crickets) played drums and bass, Norman Petty played piano and the backing vocals were performed by session singers William Marine/Robert Bollinger/Robert Harter/Merril Ostrus/Abby Hoffer and the session produced by Milton De Lugg. The recording session was at Bell Sound Studios.

In 1960 he became a recording star on the United Artists label for over ten years. He had hits in 1961 with "The Magnificent Seven" (No. 35 in US and No. 27 in Canada. and "Bonanza" (No. 19 in US and No. 19 in Canada. The arrangements were typically by Don Costa, using a large orchestral backing.

Al released singles and albums throughout the 1960s and beyond, though no others appeared on the charts except for an entry in 1964 with "From Russia with Love". United Artists used him to make commercial recordings of many movie and TV themes: "Wagon Train (Wagons Ho)", "The Ballad of Paladin", "The Rebel", and "Gunslinger". His album Solid Gold Guitar contained arrangements of "Jezebel", "Two Guitars", "Big Guitar", "I Walk the Line", and "Guitar Boogie".

The Magnificent Seven album, other than the title track, consisted of a variety of pop songs with a jazzy bent. Guitars Guitars Guitars was similar. There was a wide variety to his albums — soft pop, Italian, Hawaiian, country, jazz. In the early 1970s he continued on the Avalanche Recordings label, producing similar work including the album Theme From the 'Magnificent 7 Ride' '73. Later, on other labels, came some ethnic-themed instrumental albums such as In a Spanish Mood in 1982, and Italian instrumentals. In 1976, he accompanied Sergio Franchi, Dana Valery, and Wayne J. Kirby (Franchi's musical director) on a concert tour to Johannesburg, South Africa.

At the urging of the talent agency Ashley-Famous, Al appeared in concert in Las Vegas during the 1960s in addition to operating his own music publishing firm Alpane Music. He is credited with serving as both an arranger, conductor and soloist on many of his recordings. In later years, Al continued to perform and even toured with Frank Sinatra in 1991. During the course of his professional career, he also performed under the musical direction of several leading conductors including: Percy Faith, Morton Gould and Andre Kostelanetz.

Al Caiola died in Allendale, New Jersey, at the age of 96.