Richie Kamuca

Richie Kamuca
Background information
Birth name	Richard Kamuca
Born	(1930-07-23)July 23, 1930 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	July 22, 1977(1977-07-22) (aged 46) Los Angeles, California
Genres	West Coast jazz
Occupation	saxophonist
Instrument	Tenor saxophone
Years active	1950s—1970s
Labels	Atlantic, Impulse!, Contemporary

Richard "Richie" Kamuca (July 23, 1930–July 22, 1977), was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.

Musical career

Kamuca was born in Philadelphia, and, like many players associated with West Coast jazz, grew up in the East before moving West around the time that bebop changed the prevailing style of jazz. His early playing, in what is generally considered the Lester Young style, was done on tour with the big bands of Stan Kenton and Woody Herman, where he became a member of the later line-ups of Herman's Four Brothers saxophone section with Al Cohn and Bill Perkins.

Kamuca stayed on the West Coast, playing with the smaller groups of Chet Baker, Maynard Ferguson, Shorty Rogers, and others. He was one of the Lighthouse All-Stars in 1957 and 1958, and recorded with Perkins, Art Pepper, Jimmy Rowles, Cy Touff and many others in those years, as well as leading recording sessions in his own right.

Kamuca was a member of the group Shelly Manne and His Men from 1959 through 1962, when he returned East and settled in New York. Here he worked with Gerry Mulligan, Gary McFarland, and Roy Eldridge before returning to the West Coast in 1972, where he recorded in the studios and performed with local groups.

Less well known to the general public than saxophonists, like Stan Getz, who played in a similar Lester Young-derived style, Kamuca died of cancer, in Los Angeles, just before his 47th birthday.

Selected discography

• The Brothers! (RCA Victor, 1955) with Al Cohn and Bill Perkins
• Cy Touff and Richie Kamuca, Primitive Cats (1955)
• Bill Perkins, Tenors Head-on (1956) (With Kamuca.)
• Maynard Ferguson, Live at Peacock Lane 1956-1957 (Live in Los Angeles, with Kamuca in the band.)
• Richie Kamuca Quartet (1957)
• Jazz Erotica (1957), released as West Coast Jazz in Hi-Fi in 1959 (With Bill Holman, Conte Candoli and Frank Rosolino.)
• Shorty Rogers, Swingin' Nutcracker (1960) (Along with Holman, Perkins and Art Pepper, Kamuca was part of the saxophone section on Rogers' big-band jazz version of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.)
• Roy Eldridge - Richie Kamuca Quintet, Comin' Home Baby (Recorded 1965-66, released 1978 on Pumpkin Productions)

With Chet Baker and Bud Shank

• Theme Music from "The James Dean Story" (World Pacific, 1956)

With Herb Ellis and Jimmy Giuffre

• Herb Ellis Meets Jimmy Giuffre (Verve, 1959)

With Stan Kenton

• Popular Favorites by Stan Kenton (Capitol, 1953)
• Sketches on Standards (Capitol, 1953)
• The Kenton Era (Capitol, 1940–54, [1955])
• Kenton with Voices (Capitol, 1957)
• Back to Balboa (Capitol, 1958)
• The Ballad Style of Stan Kenton (Capitol, 1958)
• Kenton Live from the Las Vegas Tropicana (Capitol, 1959 [1961])

With Gary McFarland

• Point of Departure (Impulse!, 1963)

With Herbie Mann

• My Kinda Groove (Atlantic, 1964)
• Our Mann Flute (Atlantic, 1966)

With Shelly Manne

• Son of Gunn!! (Contemporary, 1959)
• At the Black Hawk 1 (Contemporary, 1959)
• At the Black Hawk 2 (Contemporary, 1959)
• At the Black Hawk 3 (Contemporary, 1959)
• At the Black Hawk 4 (Contemporary, 1959)
• At the Black Hawk 5 (Contemporary, 1959 [1991])
• Ruth Price with Shelly Manne & His Men at the Manne-Hole (Contemporary, 1961) with Ruth Price
• Live! Shelly Manne & His Men at the Manne-Hole (Contemporary, 1961)
• Shelly Manne & His Men Play Checkmate (Contemporary, 1961)

With the Modern Jazz Quartet

• Jazz Dialogue (Atlantic, 1965)

With Shorty Rogers

• Portrait of Shorty (RCA Victor, 1957)
• Chances Are It Swings (RCA Victor, 1958)
• The Swingin' Nutcracker (RCA Victor, 1960)

Filmography

• Adventures in Paradise (1961, TV series)
• Kings Go Forth (1958, uncredited)