Danny Polo

A versatile clarinetist, Danny Polo was one of the finer (if unheralded) swing soloists of the big band era. He picked up the clarinet while quite young (his father was a clarinetist too), playing with a marching band when he was eight. He had a duo as a teenager with pianist <a href="spotify:artist:6ThTN0WCRCAtG00Htf7CUW">Claude Thornhill</a>. Polo worked with <a href="spotify:artist:3pEfqkJLELhnaPV0LuoBv8">Elmer Schoebel</a> in 1923, visited New Orleans with Merritt Brunies' Band and had stints with Arnold Johnson, <a href="spotify:artist:0vyum03ql08P3tAvy1vCxC">Ben Bernie</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2rtPSgv5K948tiLuIFkXMQ">Jean Goldkette</a> (for three months filling in for Don Murray in 1926). After working with <a href="spotify:artist:3sDrRn30gDQmCGux6Q8NXD">Paul Ash</a>, Polo (along with drummer Dave Tough) went to Europe in the summer of 1927. He worked with George Carhart, <a href="spotify:artist:5HE4Nthh6vXABytJ0z7SSH">Arthur Briggs</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3eyNIP6QBWiWGMdGGrcatL">Lud Gluskin</a> and other bands on the Continent. Polo stayed overseas for quite awhile, playing with <a href="spotify:artist:0iKiwo4LTF4E2EsJwcNZyF">Ambrose</a> in London on and off during 1930-35. Although he returned to the U.S. in Dec. 1935, Polo came back to Britain three years later, rejoining <a href="spotify:artist:0iKiwo4LTF4E2EsJwcNZyF">Ambrose</a> and working in Paris with Ray Ventura's Orchestra. He permanently relocated to the U.S. in Oct. 1939. Polo worked with <a href="spotify:artist:4GDQve2gu5EObSXCqj8xIY">Joe Sullivan</a> (doubling on tenor), <a href="spotify:artist:3okiREk3dV4F8BmK7cpEJf">Jack Teagarden</a> (1940-42 including prominently in the soundtrack of the <a href="spotify:artist:6ZjFtWeHP9XN7FeKSUe80S">Bing Crosby</a> film "Birth Of The Blues") and Claude Thornhill's Orchestra. When the pianist was drafted, Polo led his own bands in the Midwest, rejoining <a href="spotify:artist:6ThTN0WCRCAtG00Htf7CUW">Thornhill</a> in 1947 in time for some of his finest recordings. Polo was still with <a href="spotify:artist:6ThTN0WCRCAtG00Htf7CUW">Thornhill</a> when he unexpectedly became ill and died in 1949 at the age of 48. In addition to appearing as a sideman on recording sessions with many European bands and with <a href="spotify:artist:6ThTN0WCRCAtG00Htf7CUW">Thornhill</a> (where his cool-toned clarinet worked quite well on the more adventurous <a href="spotify:artist:7g9DeYASD3RzlT4kDchsQZ">Gil Evans</a> charts), Danny Polo led two recording sessions of his own in London and one in Paris during 1937-39. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi