Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Leonard “Red” Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 22, 1929 to Barney Balaban, former president of Paramount Pictures. By the Fifties he was residing in the Florida panhandle, working as a farmer and playing in regional ensembles. He moved to New York City in the mid-1960s and held a regular gig at the Dixieland jazz club Your Father’s Mustache.

He worked extensively as a sideman, for musicians such as Wild Bill Davison, Eddie Condon, Gene Krupa, Dick Wellstood, and Kenny Davern. He opened the third incarnation of Eddie Condon’s Jazz club on W. 54th Street after arranging permission for using Eddie’s name from Condon’s widow. He co-led the house band with Ed Polcer from 1975, with whom he later shared ownership of the club. Other musicians in this outfit included Vic Dickenson, Warren Vache, and Connie Kay. The club closed in the mid-1980s.

Tubist, sousaphonist, gui Red Balaban, who also played banjo, stand-up bass, slide trombone, ukulele and rhythm guitar, transitioned on December 29, 2013 at his lakefront home in West Haven, Connecticut.

More Posts: history,instrumental,jazz,music,sousaphone,tuba