In the early forties, Norman played a Victory Bond concert with Gracie Fields in Timmins. His parents turned down an offer for him to accompany Gracie across Canada, believing he was too young.
From there, he went to study at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto for ten months. He had a great teacher, Boris Berlin, but both agreed he shouldn’t. be a concert pianist, feeling he wouldn’t practice enough. So, Norman joined a country and swing band in northern Quebec and spent four months in Rouen. He returned to Toronto and played a few jobs with his own trio. Then, he played with the Frank Evans Orchestra for a summer at the Seabreeze, next to the Palais Royale.
In the late forties when cocktail bars began to spring up in Ontario, Norman joined the Jimmy Younger Trio, playing and singing in bars like The Metropole Hotel, Club Norman, Silver Rail, Duffy’s Tavern, The Concord Tavern, and Club One-Two. He then joined the Jimmy Amaro Sr. Trio at the St. Regis Hotel in Toronto. From there, he worked with the Chicho Valle’s Latin Band at the Cork Room and spent a summer with Chicho at Bigwin Inn in Muskoka.
Later, he played the CBC Radio Show “Chicho Valle Y Los Cubanos”. During this time he was still doing jazz sessions with his trio, and started playing jazz at the house of Hambourg. This was the beginning of Yorkville before the coffee houses and the “follies” joined. By now, Norm was playing rehearsal and audition piano at CBC. He played in bands like “Cross Canada Hit Parade” with the Bert Niosi Orchestra. He kept jazz jobs at night while doing this and started backing American jazz stars at the Town Tavern and the Colonial Tavern in downtown Toronto. At the Town he net and played for jazz people like Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Flip Philips, Stan Getz and vocalists like Carmen Macrae, Anita O’Day, Johnny Hartman, Maxine Sullivan, Joe Williams and Mel Torme. Mel was a friend of Morris Levy who owned the work famous jazz club “Birdland”. He arranged a date for the Norman Amadio Quartet with Ach Alleyne, Ed Bickert and a young German bass player named Bob Schilling, off to New York. After some immigration problems and the death of his baseman in New York, the band returned to the Town Tavern.
The trio guested on different TV shows like “The Jackie Rae Show” and the “Jack Duffy Show” and played in Jazz bands for Timex with the Eddie Karam Orchestra. Norman had a band on a pop rock show called “Music Hop” which lasted five years on the CBC, and he also played for the “Wayne & Schuster” bands with Sam Hersenhoren & Rucy Toth for about twenty years. Norm joined the Tommy Ambrose “General Motors Show” band of Cucio Agostini and the trio traveled around Canada with Tommy, playing his “Celebration” gospel radio show for about five years. Another five years were spent with the Bobby Edwards Band on Nashville Swing, a TV show which featured many American country stars.
Norm did a TV special “Hank Snow and the Norman Amadio Band” with Wilf Carter as a guest. This was followed by one season of “Down Home Country” with Tom Gallant & the Norman Amadio Band. During all these studio years, the trio kept steady night jobs at the Sheraton and Sutton Place playing danceable jazz. Later in the evening and on into the middle of the night they moved places like the Cellar and the House of Hambourg for “wild” jazz.
When the studios were quiet, Norman worked the O’Keefe Centre playing in bands and backing acts like the Supremes, Paul Anka, Englebert Humerdink, Judy Garland, and Red Skelton. As part of the Royal York Orchestra he backed many Las Vegas and Hollywood acts like Peggy Lee, Eddie Fisher, Donald O’Connor and Phyllis Diller. Whenever the Lawrence Welk show took time off, the trio would back Henry Cuesta in the clubs around Toronto, New Orleans and Sacramento.
Lately, Norman Amadio has played engagements with Rick Wilkins, John Macleod, Rosemary Galloway and Don Vickery.
The recordings of the Norman Amadio long time trio, recorded at the CBC Glenn Gould Studio are available - 50 years- the Norman Amadio trio on the MPC Music Label on a 3 CD release or one CD - Best Selections of the 3 CDS.
photos courtesy of Vladimir Gotin vgotin@sympatico.ca
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