Eddie Wasserman: The Small Groups

Eddie Wasserman wasn't a star but he could have been. Strangely, he never was a leader on his own recording session. Instead, he spent the bulk of his career playing woodwinds in top big bands. His first recording session was with Benny Goodman in December 1948 and he remained with the King of Swing into 1948. Going forward, he was a favorite of many bandleaders. But who was Wasserman and what did he sound like? Big band recordings tell you little about individual players unless they solo long and often. [Photo above of Eddie Wasserman on tenor saxophone and Gene Krupa]

To find the answers to these two questions, I did some research, and I zoomed in on Wasserman's late-1950s quartet recordings with Gene Krupa. As you'll hear, Wasserman was remarkable, being able to triple fluidly on tenor saxophone, clarinet and flute. Though his discography lacks a leadership album, his Krupa Quartet sessions can be considered leadership dates, since he was the featured instrumentalist.

First, who was Eddie Wasserman? In addition to playing with Goodman, he was in big-band live and studio recordings led by Artie Shaw, Manny Albam, Stan Kenton, Louie Bellson and Chico O'Farrell, with whom he co-led a big band in 1953.

By 1955, big band work on the East Coast was starting to dry up. In an obit written by Elliot Pinsley for New Jersey's Bergen Record in June 1992, after Wasserman's death on May 27, 1992, an agent asked O'Farrell and Wasserman if they would form a small group to play Latin music in Miami Beach. They did, and O'Farrell likened the experience to "going to hell."

Given the youth-culture explosion in 1966, jazz clearly wasn't an ideal way to earn a living. So Wasserman gave up the road and became an assistant director of the concert band at Clifton High School in New Jersey. He continued to play club dates and find work in Broadway pit bands. [Cover photo above of Eddie Wasserman on flute with Gene Krupa]

Wasserman was born in Smackover, Ark., in 1923. He told friends he had played the saxophone with many black kids in the area growing up. After his father died, Wasserman moved with his mother to Tyler, Texas. That's where he fell in love with jazz. His first paid job was at age 14, in a dance band.

At the onset of World War II in 1941, Wasserman attended New York's Juilliard School for a couple of years but he was soon drafted and wasn't discharged until 1946. He returned to Juilliard to complete his studies and graduated in 1948, when he started playing with Goodman.

Wasserman later earned a master's degree in education from Columbia University. His wife at the time, Romaine Wasserman, said, "It was really quite a difficult decision for him to make. The motivating force was the hope of doing something that was more reliable in terms of a living."

Wasserman died after suffering a heart attack in May 1992. He was 69.

Let's listen to small-group tracks that feature Wasserman:

Here's Fingerpoppin' Blues on clarinetist Tony Scott's album Scott's Fling in 1955. The band featured Jimmy Nottingham (tp), Billy Byers (tb), Tony Scott (cl), Eddie Wasserman (ts), Danny Bank (bar), Milt Hinton (b) and Osie Johnson (d)...

Here's Lucky to Be Me from the same recording session...

Here's There Will Never Be Another You in March 1958 with Gene Krupa's Men of Jazz, featuring Eddie Wasserman (ts,cl,fl), Ronnie Ball (p), Jimmy Gannon (b) and Gene Krupa (d)...

Here's Flying Home from the same live date...

Here's Yesterdays...

Here's Memories of You...

Here's Drum Boogie from The Swingin' Gene Krupa Quartet at Chicago's London House in 1959, featuring Eddie Wasserman (fl,cl,ts), Ronnie Ball (p), Jimmy Gannon (b) and Gene Krupa (d)...

Here's Tenderly from the same date...

Here's High Falutin' from the same date...

And here's two parts of Tony Bennett with the Gene Krupa Quartet in 1962 for the National Guard, featuring Tony Bennett (vcl), Eddie Wasserman (ts,cl,fl), John Bunch (p), Dave Perlman (b) and Gene Krupa (d)...

Here's Part 1...

And here's Part 2...