MAURICE ROCCO

Maurice Rocco ( Maurice Rockhold, Oxford Ohio, 26 junio 1915 a 25 marzo 1976, Bangkok, Tailandia) , aunque nacido fuera , fue un estadounidense más músico , boogie woogie , blues pianista, cantante y actor.
Actuó brevemente con la orquesta de Duke Ellington, antes de adoptar el nombre artístico Maurice Rocco.
Se trasladó a Bangkok en los años 60 para tocar en  bares de copas y discotecas.
Boogie-woogie en acción - que es Maurice Rocco, así como la esencia del ritmo su Rockin '. Una de las sensaciones del mundo del entretenimiento, este pianista no se contentó con permanecer sentado pero se puso de pie, disfrutando con sus giros probablemente nunca antes vistos en un piano. Sus ritmos se destacaron por un salto, salto y salto técnica pianística que es a la vez una demostración física y musical del arte de la boogie-woogie.
La faceta de  Rocco como entertainer  tienden a eclipsar su notable talento para la composición si no fuera por un fondo musical y su  muy sólida formación. Su madre era profesora de piano y guió sus estudios musicales hasta que estuviera listo para entrar en la escuela de música de la Universidad de Miami en Oxford, Ohio, donde iba a seguir una carrera como concertista de piano. Sin embargo, una predilección por por el Boogie Woogie y su rivalidad con  con Bach, Brahms y Beethoven lo llevó a las dificultades con las autoridades de la escuela y, en muy poco tiempo encontró  una salida más práctica para sus inclinaciones musicales en las estaciones de radio locales en los alrededores Cincinnati.
El trabajo de Rocco llegó a la atención del legendario Noble Sissle y sus apariciones con este atuendo le sirvieron como trampolín para sus apariciones en  las película de dos de las producciones de Walter Wanger, "Vogues de 1938" y "Calle 52". En cada una, él retrató a un pianista club nocturno. Más tarde, formó su propia banda - Maurice Rocco y su Rockin 'Rhythm Boys - y hubo una serie de demandas prominentes de Nueva York y los clubes nocturnos de Chicago, teatros y emisoras  de radio.

Un maestro de la armonía, el punto y contrapuntoase ganó su  fama como solista en Le Ruban Bleu de Nueva York y Café Zanzíbar.

                             

                             


                              

Maurice Rocco, born Maurice Rockhold (June 26, 1915 – March 24, 1976) was an African-American pianist, singer, actor, and composer known for playing boogie-woogie piano and his disdain for using a piano bench. He was a top nightclub and theater draw in the 1940s, and made several film appearances. He toured the United States, Canada, and Europe before becoming a fixture in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was murdered.

Maurice Rockhold was born in 1915in Oxford, Ohio to a music teacher mother. His mother taught him classical piano starting at age 10, but did not interfere with his interest in rhythm playing as long as he finished his lessons.He entered Miami University as a music student (from where he was later to earn a Master of Music degree,)but soon quit to work for radio station WLW. In addition, he also taught piano harmony at Oberlin College.His work at WLW impressed Noble Sissle so much that he hired him to work with the Rogers Sisters at the Kit Kat Club in New York, and the act was renamed The Three Roccos.He was to later legally change his last name from Rockhold to Rocco.In 1938, Rocco left the club to participate in two films, Vogues of 1938 and 52nd Street. He returned to New York to form his own band,which included Alton Moore, Arville Harris, and Bobby Holmes among its members.By the early 1940s he was no longer fronting a band, but was working as a solo act.

Decca 8574, Tea for Two

Between 1940 and 1941 he cut 14 sides for Decca, most of which were released on their "Sepia" series. He did not join active military service because his poor eyesight classified him as 4-F, but during World War II he entertained American troops, both in person and as part of the American Forces Network Jubilee radio program. Rocco spent most of the 1940s headlining at nightclubs and theaters (where his engagements would extend into months) and participating in vaudeville revues.By 1944 he had a US $500,000 insurance policy on his hands Alongside Mary Lou Williams, he represented the United States in the second African Dance Festival at Carnegie Hall in April 1945.He was married to Iantha on July 3 of that year.Later in 1945, he appeared in his most famous role in the film Incendiary Blond. His earnings in 1945 topped U.S. $250,000. Despite all the professional success, this marriage was short lived. Iantha filed for divorce before their first anniversary amid allegations of physical and mental abuse.He signed to RCA Victor Records in 1949.

In the early 1950s he made tours of Europe and Southeast Asia. Alongside Slim Gaillard, he was in 1953 solicited to play a lead role in a film to be entitled "Two Joes from Georgia".Rocco fell into legal difficulties in the late 1950s regarding bad checks: he was jailed over Christmas 1957 in Cleveland,and was accused of the same offense in July 1958. He moved to Europe before spending the last 15 years of his life performing in Thailand, where he was a regular tourist attraction at the Bamboo Bar in the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok.He was found slashed to death in his apartment, death having occurred on March 24, 1976. The murder weapon was his own Malaysian knife. At the time of his death he was married to Mary Arlene Rocco (1914–1994). He is buried at Woodside Cemetery in Oxford.

Rocco was billed as "Maurice Rocco and His Rockin' Rhythm" in nightclubs and his recordings. Maurice was most famous for standing while playing, not using a piano bench.The origin of his playing posture has been credited to different sources. In 1944 Rocco claimed that he started standing in 1941, when a customer was sitting on his piano bench and Rocco, intimidated by the heft of this customer, decided that it would be best to play without the customary seat. He eschewed a piano bench from this point on because of the positive reaction from the crowd that night. While playing, he would alternately beat out the rhythm with his feet, or perform dance moves.Billboard described his playing as "Rocking and Riotous" but panned his singing ability. His nightclub performances were known to be uncommonly boistrous for the period, even moving the piano from one end of the stage to the other with "violent energy," but Duke Ellington and Mabel Mercer praised his ability to perform in a sophisticated manner,His showmanship was as recognized as his piano playing, and he was known to favor wearing a pea-green dinner jacket. Critic Peter Silvester describes Rocco's boogie-woogie style as "technically slick" but "devoid of genuine boogie-woogie tone coloring."

Rocco was a headlining act for much of the 1940s, both in the United States and England.His stand-up piano playing became a byline.Because of his appearances in Hollywood musicals and "soundies" (musical short films) that were exported to Britain during the Second World War, Rocco's playing style was to influence several European post-war boogie-woogie specialists. He was an early influence on Ramsey Lewis and Bobby Short.

Recordings

Rocco made his first recordings for Decca. Some of his most popular recordings first appeared on the Guild label, with Cozy Cole on drums and Mack Stewart on bass. When this label went out of business, its catalog was sold to Musicraft Records in 1946, which re-issued several Rocco sides. Subsequently he cut a few additional sides for this label.