RIO GREGORY – HIS PIANO AND HIS RHYTHM, International Piano Medley, 1955

This  record has puzzled me for years. Who was this guy with the colorful name ? Only recently a German Wikipedia article appeared that cleared things up. This is my translation of the German article:

Rio De Gregori  (* September 22,  1919 in Zürich; † May 22, 1987 in Munich) was a Swiss jazz pianist and singer.

De Gregori learned to play the piano at age 7 and at fourteen started to collect jazz records by the likes of Duke Ellington and others. Although his parents wanted him to become a classical pianist, he started to perform professionally as a jazz musician. He worked with Willie Mac Allen (1939-40),  James Boucher (1940- 41), Jo Grandjean (1942) and up until September 1944 with René Weiss and his orchestra. Then he got a job in  Fred Böhler´s big band and stayed with them until 1945. The same year he founded his own big band,  that included some of the  best Swiss jazz musician like Stuff Combe, Bob Jaquillard, Jean Pierre Dupuis, Luc Hoffmann, Raoul Schmassmann, Kurt Weil and guest soloist Glyn Paque.  After the breakup of his band he continued to work in a trio and as a soloist and also managed a bar in Ascona, Switzerland. He then settled in Munich, opened a night club and henceforth called himself Rio Gregory. He named the club Bar Ascona.  Later he discovered pop singer Suzanne Doucet at Bar Ascona.

Rio Gregory recorded another four EPs worth of material for the Varieton label and some more records for Columbia, Elite and Harlekin. Despite the Wikipedia article, not one of  them has ever been reissued.

Simple but nicely designed one-sided plastic Varieton company sleeve and red vinyl for the jazz collectors of 1955!

Enjoy:

RIO GREGORY, International Piano Medley Side 1, Bacciami – Ich Hab Mich So An Dich Gewöhnt – Tant Je Suis Amoureux De Vous – We´ll Be Together Again – Ich Zahl Mir´s An Den Knöpfen Ab

RIO GREGORY, International Piano Medley Side 2, Tell Me Why – Trois Fois Merci – Avril au Portugal – Dreh Dich Noch Einmal Um – Sweet Georgia Brown

---