musician
Rich Caruso
piano, trombone, accordion, keyboards
phone:
954-249-6821
email:
richardcarusofl@aol.com
I am mostly retired from teaching and performing. This bio is here for inquiries as I still perform occasionally if the piano is in good condition.
I am a professional musician, having worked in the South Florida area since the early 1970's. In the 70's, I played mostly trombone and traveled a lot. Since the '80's I have worked more on piano & keyboards.
In addition to teaching and performing on trombone, piano, accordion and keyboards, over my long career I have played with musical ensembles of every size and instrumentation. I have written music for small to large bands up to a 50-piece orchestra.
My father was also a professional pianist, accordionist and teacher. Of course, my first music lessons were with him.
I was educated at Glassboro State Teachers College (now Rowan University) in New Jersey. Then the University of Miami awarded me a full scholarship in Music Theory as a major in Studio Music and Jazz.
I'm also a computer programmer, having worked over 14 years for Wells Fargo
and First American Mortgage Services.
- I have frequently performed for Gold Coast Jazz Society functions.
One of my favorites is their monthly "First Friday Jam Session". On those nights they feature junior high and high school jazz students backed up by a professional jazz rhythm section (piano, bass, & drums). The young players get an opportunity to improvise in a professional setting. It’s been happening for a number of years now and it's really great to see the improvement of the young musicians year to year. A few even play on a professional level!
- For the Broward County Schools SEAS program (Student Enrichment in Arts and Science), we played a series of jazz concerts called "Jazzy Classics" at the Center for the Performing Arts. Several thousand students from Broward County Schools arrived by school bus to hear the music.
I was commissioned by the Symphony of Americas to write new jazz orchestrations of classic pieces for this educational series.
The concerts were performed by the Symphony of the Americas under the direction of Maestro James Brooks-Bruzzese and featured my orchestrations and a jazz trio playing with the symphony. We included short music history lectures about the musical pieces.
As a professional musician I have been fortunate to perform with some great talents.
Here's a partial list:
- played trombone and toured Europe and the United States with jazz artist Lionel Hampton,
including appearances at the Newport In New York Jazz Festival
- played trombone and toured Europe, South America, and the United States with Latin/jazz
artist Tito Puente, including concerts from Quito, Ecuador to Paris, France to Carnegie Hall in New York
- played trombone at Newport In New York Jazz Festival with Tito Puente,
Machito, Dizzy Gillespie and Sonny Stitt
- played trombone and toured the United States with jazz artist Maynard Ferguson.
- played trombone on Tito Puente's Grammy Award winning albums 'A Tribute to Benny More'
and 'On Broadway'.
- recorded with Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, and others
- performed with Maestro James Brooks-Bruzzese conducting the Symphony of the Americas in a series of concerts featuring my orchestrations
- played trombone with the Fort Lauderdale Symphony Orchestra, the Miami Philharmonic Orchestra, the Miami Ballet Orchestra, the Miami Opera Guild Orchestra, including performances
with Luciano Pavarotti and Franco Corelli
- played trombone and/or piano with South Florida jazz and blues artists Ira Sullivan, Jaco Pastorius, Juanita Dixon, John "Spider" Martin, Big Mama Blue, Paulie Cohen Big Band, and many others
- played with these jazz greats, either "sitting in" on their gigs or in "jam session" settings-
George Benson, Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Art Farmer and others
- performed on trombone or piano with numerous singers and show groups including The Temptations, Glady Knight and the Pips, Lou Rawls, Joe Williams, Tom Jones, Wayne Newton and many others
- I was "house pianist" at iconic South Florida locations
Boca Raton Hotel, Breakers Hotel Palm Beach, Tropical Acres Restaurant
- I have played many functions for the Symphony of the Americas, our local professional orchestra
based here in Fort Lauderdale.
One night for their special fund raiser party I played accordion behind two opera singers!
That was unusual and fun. I transcribed the piano parts for accordion. After a quick rehearsal, away we went!
-Along with Paul Legrande and Jim Chapek I had a jazz trio in the early 2000's called ‘jazzjones’ that was chosen Best Jazz Band by New Times Magazine.
Since 2019 I have enjoyed playing piano for the Gurdjieff Society in their dance/movements class. They have their own unusual and interesting music written for solo piano.
In other interests, I am a 2nd degree blackbelt in Okinawan style Uechi-ryu karate.
And I play with magic as a hobby.
My children were music students. Now they are grown and successful in their chosen fields. Yes, I'm very proud of them.
I live in South Florida with my wife and our yorkie.
You can hear a wide range of music I have written and recorded at my YouTube site. But be aware this is not commercial music. I have tried to stretch artistic musical boundaries wherever possible. I add recordings from my archives as I re-discover them.
Rich Caruso music on YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCFTbHb0JXaeiJBve3QqVJxQ