Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Frank Isola was born on February 20, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan and was heavily influenced by Gene Krupa. He played in the U.S. military during World War II and then studied and performed in California with Bobby Sherwood and Earle Spencer.

Moving to New York City he played with Johnny Bothwell and Elliot Lawrence in 1947. Following this, in the Fifties Frank played with Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan, as well as with Mose Allison, Eddie Bert, Bob Brookmeyer, Jimmy Raney, Johnny Williams and Tony Fruscella.

By the late 1950s Isola returned to Detroit and kept working periodically with local bands or in jam sessions but well out of the spotlight. He was active in the Cass Corridor area of Detroit in the 1970s playing jazz standards with pianist Bobby McDonald and others at Cobb’s Corner Bar.

He worked as a drummer briefly at Captain Hornblower’s in Key West, Florida in the late 1980s with pianist Johnny Williams. By the early Nineties, he moved back north and was playing weekly at Tom’s Steamer’s Bar in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. In 1994 and 1995 Isola played at The Windsor Jazz Festival in Ontario, Canada backing Franz Jackson and Marcus Belgrave. The 1994 concert was released on Parkwood Records as Live at Windsor Jazz Festival III with Jackson and Belgrave as co-leaders.

He recorded fourteen albums between 1954 and 1981 with Getz, Mulligan, Mose Allison, Bob Brookmeyer, Dick Garcia, Franz Jackson, Charlie Parker and Bob Szajner. Drummer Frank Isola, who never led a recording session, transitioned on December 12, 2004.

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