Jazz great Al Gallodoro in a recent photo

A legendary jazz musician with a deep connection to Birmingham is dead. Alfred J. (Al) Gallodoro, called “the best sax player who ever lived” by bandleader Jimmy Dorsey and who began his career with performances at Birmingham’s Lyric Theatre in 1926, died last weekend after a brief illness. According to his manager, JoAnn Chmielowski, Gallodoro was 95 and had been living in Oneonta, N.Y., since 1981.

Gallodoro, who distinguished himself on both saxophone and clarinet in a career that lasted 82 years, was born in Chicago in 1913, but lived in Birmingham from about 1918 to 1927. It was in Birmingham that he began playing music. He was only 13 years old when he appeared at the Lyric, the city’s grandest vaudeville house, with a band called Romeo and His Juliets, along with the Romeo brothers, Frank and Alfred. He was 14 when he went on the road for the first time, touring the Gulf Coast with a band led by Birmingham banjo player George Evans. Gallodoro also lived in New Orleans before moving to New York City in 1933.

Celebrated for his ability to play both jazz and classical music, Gallodoro played with the great big-band leader Paul Whiteman. He was a member of the NBC Symphony, working with such famed conductors as Arturo Toscanini and Leopold Stokowski. He shared the stage with legendary musicians and entertainers, including George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Les Paul, Mario Lanza, Sid Caesar, Bob Hope and Milton Berle. He played on radio countless times. He recorded eight CDs. He had music composed for him, most notably “The Gallodoro Serenade,” written in 1958 by composer Ferde Grofè. He had a bit part in Francis Coppola’s Godfather II, playing a street musician, and even had the distinction of giving private saxophone lessons to Harpo Marx in New York in 1934, in Harpo’s luxurious suite at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Gallodoro was also one of the oldest professional musicians in the world who was still playing, recording and teaching. His last gig was Sept. 20, at the Jazz and Harvest Festival in Corning, N.Y. A funeral service will be held for him on Friday in Oneonta, N.Y. For more information on Gallodoro, including information about his recently released live CD, Moment in Time, recorded at the Roma Country Club in Birmingham in 1969, go to his website at www.algallodoro.com

Write to editor@bhamweekly.com