Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Henry “Boots” Mussulli was born in Milford, Massachusetts on November 18, 1915. His first instrument was clarinet, which he first played at age 12.

By the Forties he was playing with Mal Hallett in Massachusetts and joined Teddy Powell’s group in 1943-44. He played with Stan Kenton from 1944 to 1947, then returned to play with Kenton again on tour in 1952 and 1954.

He played with Vido Musso, Gene Krupa, Charlie Ventura, Serge Chaloff, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Herb Pomeroy.

In 1949, Boots opened a jazz club in his hometown, called The Crystal Room and from the mid-1950s, he concentrated more on music education, leading a local youth orchestra, the Milford Youth Band. They performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1967.

Saxophonist Boots Mussulli, based chiefly out of Boston, Massachusetts, passed away from cancer on September 23, 1967 in Norfolk, Massachusetts.

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