* En anglais uniquement
Perhaps only a bit less obscure than the likes of Greely Walton,
Art Karle was a tenor saxophonist and clarinetist who began leading his own bands in Boston as a teenager in the '20s. He was back and forth between the roles of bandleader and sideman throughout his career, between his hometown and New York City as well for that matter.
Karle was sometimes victorious in his efforts to establish an instrumental voice and star power on par with employers such as
Benny Goodman, including a hit cover version of "Moon Over Miami" in 1936. For the most part, jazz listeners come across the sound of
Karle's horns in the background on
Billie Holiday records, but see his name only if squinting at liner notes.
He first tried heading south to Manhattan in the early '30s, juggling the schedule of several name bands such as
Goodman's with his own outfits, the latter mostly active in recording sessions. The following decade,
Karle was in the lineup of a band led by Hiram Jason, whose stage nickname of "Hy" made the group sound like a leftover salutation from the Friday the 13th series. Sometimes when
Karle went back to Boston, it was not for musical reasons: as the country mobilized for the Second World War,
Karle picked up a regular job in a defense plant. He continued gigging as well in this period, during the war itself and in the '50s and '60s. The music of his later years, played in dance bands such as the Herb Sulkin Orchestra, was in a way similar to his own recording enterprises decades earlier. ~ Eugene Chadbourne