Daily Dose Of Jazz…

John Adriano Acea was born September 11, 1917 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Adriano Acea of Cuba and Leona Acea of Virginia. One of six children, he was stricken with rheumatic fever and wasn’t expected to live during his first decade of life.

During the 1930s, Acea started out as a trumpeter and saxophonist and after his military service in the Army in 1946, he switched to playing the piano. He later became a session musician with jazz veterans Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Cootie Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Dinah Washington, James Moody, Zoot Sims, and Roy Haynes. Between 1951 to 1962 he would record with Grant Green, Dodo Greene, Joe Newman, Leo Parker, Don Wilkerson, and Jesse Powell.

Acea is listed as co-composer of Nice ‘N’ Greasy that was the closing track to Lou Donaldson’s 1962 album, The Natural Soul. He is also credited as a composer on recordings by Gillespie, Jacquet, and Moody.

Pianist Adriano Acea, known as Johnny Acea, passed away on July 25, 1963.

More Posts: history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,saxophone,trumpet