Dave Schildkraut

Dave Schildkraut (January 7, 1925 – January 1, 1998) was an American jazz alto saxophonist.

Schildkraut^[1] first played professionally with Louis Prima in 1941. Following this he played with Buddy Rich (1946), Anita O'Day (1947), Stan Kenton (1953–54), Pete Rugolo (1954), Oscar Pettiford (1954), Miles Davis ("Solar" on: Walkin', Prestige, 1954), George Handy (1955), Tony Aless (1955), Ralph Burns, Tito Puente, Johnny Richards, and Kenton again in 1959. From the 1960s, he played freelance in New York City, where he appeared regularly with Eddie Bert at the West End Cafe. Later in his life he went into semi-retirement.

Schildkraut's playing was fluid and brilliant in pure bebop style: so much so that, during a blindfold test for Down Beat, Charles Mingus mistakenly identified him as Charlie Parker.^[2]

In 2000, the label Endgame Records published his only recording as a leader, Last Date.

Discography

With Stan Kenton

• Kenton Showcase (Capitol, 1954)
• The Kenton Era (Capitol, 1940–54, [1955])

With Oscar Pettiford

• Basically Duke (Bethlehem, 1954)

With Pete Rugolo

• Rugolomania (Columbia, 1955)
• New Sounds by Pete Rugolo (Harmony, 1954-55, [1957])

References

1. Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford, 1999, p. 586.
2. Quoted in "The arts journal" online edition, July 2006.