Riccio, Pat - The New Big Band Sound

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	Buccaneers Blues	03:08
	2	Medley	03:59
	3	Embraceable You	03:38
	4	I Want to be Happy - Cha-Cha	01:43
	5	Moanin'	02:59
	6	September Song	01:55

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	Birth of the Blues	02:51
	2	Ellington Medley	03:24
	3	Boogie Blues	02:24
	4	Just One of those Things	03:06
	5	The Party's Over (vocal by Claudette)	03:12
	6	Jubilee Polka	01:53

Photos

Videos

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Information/Write-up

Pat Riccio – Canada’s Saxophone Stylist

Patrick Joseph “Pat” Riccio was born in Port Arthur, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) on December 3, 1918, and grew up in Toronto, where his family moved when he was still a boy. By the age of ten he had already developed a love of music, taking up saxophone and flute and showing a natural ability for arranging and conducting. Formal training at school gave him a solid foundation, but Riccio’s instincts and versatility would always set him apart.

When the Second World War broke out, Riccio enlisted with the RCAF and in 1941 was appointed music director of the RCAF Streamliners, a 15-piece dance band that entertained troops and broadcast for the BBC in England. His group even alternated sets with Glenn Miller’s legendary Army Air Force Band at the Queensbury Club in London—a formative experience that sharpened his arranging skills and expanded his horizons as a bandleader.

Returning to Toronto after the war, Riccio found a bustling music scene ready for his talents. He wrote and arranged for many of the city’s leading orchestras, including Bert Niosi, Mart Kenney, and Art Hallman, while also beginning to assemble his own groups. At the same time, he studied with two of Canada’s most important teachers, John Weinzweig and Gordon Delamont, whose lessons in composition and theory helped him move fluidly between pop, jazz, and commercial work.

By the late 1940s, Riccio was earning national recognition. Listeners to CBC’s Jazz Unlimited voted him “Best Alto Saxophonist” in 1947 and “Best Baritone Saxophonist” in 1949. His reputation as a player with a warm tone and impeccable phrasing was matched by his skill as an arranger, which made him one of the most in-demand musicians in Toronto’s busy recording and broadcasting circles. He wrote themes for CBC programs, scored music for singers such as Wally Koster, Patti Lewis, and Billy O’Connor, and even ventured into musical theatre with a stage work titled Pauline.

Riccio recorded widely from the late 1950s into the 1960s, leading both small jazz combos and large orchestras. His Basic Sounds of the Pat Riccio Quartet (1959, Quality) introduced his refined small-group style, while The New Big Band Sound of Pat Riccio (1961, Arc) showcased his power as a bandleader in full swing, captured live at Oshawa’s Jubilee Pavilion. Later, his association with the Canadian Talent Library brought further recordings, including a collaboration with jazz piano giant Teddy Wilson. These albums, distributed to radio stations across the country, kept Riccio’s sound in Canadian homes for years.

On stage, Riccio’s groups became fixtures at Toronto nightclubs, hotels, and concert halls, and he toured abroad with CBC concert parties. His ability to move from swinging dance band sets to intimate jazz quartets made him one of the most adaptable leaders of his generation.

The Riccio family name would continue in Canadian music. His son, Pat Riccio Jr., became a pianist, songwriter, and producer, best known as Anne Murray’s longtime musical director from 1975 to 1987. Into the next generation, his grandson has also carried on the family’s musical legacy as a producer and multi-instrumentalist.

Pat Riccio Sr. passed away in Toronto on August 23, 1982, leaving behind a catalogue of recordings that deserve far greater attention. From saxophone polls in the 1940s to his lush big-band records of the 1960s, he was a musician’s musician: versatile, tasteful, and always committed to raising the standard of Canadian jazz.
-Robert Williston

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