WILBERT BARANCO, BAY AREA PIANIST
Slide 2 [Play Baranco Boogie] Chris Sheridan describes Wilbert Baranco as “something of a mystery figure in the music”and I suspect that “Who?” was the reaction of some of you when you saw his name on the programme. Not a major figure by any means but deserving of his meed of praise. Wilbert Victor Baranco was born in Baton Rouge LA on 15 April 1909 to Beverly and Pearl Baranco. In 1910 his father was a presser in a clothing store while in 1920 he was a janitor in an oil company. By 1927 the family (now increased by the birth of Lester [1911] and Arnold [1915]) had moved to Oakland and Wilbert was a student at Oakland Technical High School. In 1930 his father was, according to the Census, a waiter on the Southern Pacific. He had obtained the job when he first moved to the Bay Area and after working for a year he was eligible for a pass that enabled him to bring the rest of his family to join him.
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Wilbert’s earliest musical appearances show him as a vocalist, playing the role of Sir Tristan in the grand opera “Martha,” and singing in church and as a member of a quartet. But he was soon gaining a reputation as a pianist - the report of a party in November 1930 said that ‘Dancing was the feature of the evening’s entertainment; Mr. Wilbert Baranco at the piano. Mr. Baranco really knows how to play, and everyone enjoyed it. The clever young Englishman, Mr. Reginald Forsythe also favored the guests with several selections.’
[Slide 4] Within a few months he was working as a professional musician in a band led by Curtis Mosby. He spent the best part of twelve months touring with Curtis Mosby’s Dixie Blues Blowers in a road show called “Change Your Luck.” After spending July and August of 1933 in San Francisco the company travelled through Oregon and Washington (with a trip across the border to Vancouver), then through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, the Dakotas and Nebraska. At the beginning of 1934 the band joined a revue called “Harlem Scandals” and worked in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana and South Dakota. It was not an experience that he enjoyed - many years later he recalled “I didn’t like the travel, the money and the checkerboard pattern of segregation. Once we played a theatre in Missoula, Montana. Everything was fine except they wouldn’t let us sleep in town because we were black. We had to pack up and sleep in Helena, 200 miles away. This was the pattern through Montana, Idaho, Colorado, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa and on into Chicago.”
[Slide 5] By June 1934 Baranco had left Mosby’s band and returned to San Francisco where in June to July of 1934 he was advertised as appearing with his band for Joe Green (The Cab Calloway of the West) and his Black Birds of 1934 at the Tip Top Club in San Francisco ‘direct from Grand Terrace Gardens, Chicago.’ However the gig was short-lived because of pressure from the local white musicians' union.
[Slide 6] Evidence for the next few years is scanty but enough to show that he continued to lead a band and work in various clubs; he also wrote arrangements for Lionel Hampton and Les Hite and taught piano.
[Slide 7] In 1939 he got a regular gig with his trio at Club Alabam in San Francisco and remained there until he was enlisted in the navy in October 1942. The trio had various changes of personnel but notably featured saxophonist Jerome Richardson and bass man Junior Raglin, who eventually left to join Duke Ellington.
[Slide 8] There were also appearances at other venues
[Slide 9] and with other musicians. The navy recognised his musical talent and after basic training at Great Lakes IL he was assigned, along with many other distinguished jazz musicians, to the St. Mary’s Pre-Flight School coloured band in Moraga near San Francisco. After the war he moved for a couple of years to Los Angeles where he recorded a number of sessions for various labels and under various bandleaders in 1945-7.
[Slide 10] On the G & G label for Joe Green’s Royal Records he backed Ernie Andrews and
Slide 11] Johnny Criner. [Play Railroad Blues].
[Slide 12] For Apollo he worked with a band headed by Lucky Thompson backing Duke Henderson, Rabon Tarrant and Dinah Washington. [Play Beggin’ Mama Blues].
[Slide 13] With John Shifty Henry’s All Stars he played behind Duke Henderson also for Apollo. [Play Don’t Forget I’m A Married Man].
[Slide 14] For Otis Rene’s Excelsior imprint he played on a session with a group led by Charles Mingus - two of the tracks had vocals by Claude Trenier - and on Art Rupe’s Juke Box label he did one vocal on a session by pianist Sylvester Scott.
[Slide 15] With Paul Reiner’s Black & White operation he directed and played on a session by Ivie Anderson and
[Slide 16] was in a band led by Oscar Pettiford which accompanied Estelle Edson [Play Don’t Drive This Jive Away].
[Slide 17] And it was for Black & White that he recorded as band leader, first with his Rhythm Bombardiers (the opening track I played was from this session) and then for two sessions with a trio. [Play Blues In “C” Minor].
[Slide 18] From the second session came this lively version of “Rosetta.” [Play Rosetta] Ulysses Livingston on guitar.
[Slide 19] He also led a big band on a session for the Armed Forces Radio Service which has been reissued by Hep - Bugle Call Rag, an appropriate tune given the intended audience, features solos by Jackie Kelso (tenor), Britt Woodman (alto), Baranco himself, Lucky Thompson (baritone) and Snooky Young (tpt). [Play Bugle Call Rag]
[Slide 20] A session by Effie Smith for Aladdin with a band led by Buddy Harper includes a pianist described on the label as “Will Barry” - this is very likely to have been Baranco. [Play Sugar Daddy]
[Slide 21] He presumably worked the Los Angeles area clubs during that period but I have only found references to a stint with Zutty Singleton’s band at the Streets of Paris and solo work at the House of Lyle in Beverly Hills and at a club called the Doll House in North Hollywood for a month or so in late 1947.
[Slide 22] By 1948 he was back in the Bay Area and began a series of engagements as pianist in various clubs - the Colony Club (April 1947), the Arabian Nights (August to November 1948),
[Slide 23] the Mocambo (September 1949 to November 1950), Cook’s (September to December 1951), the Delmar Restaurant (November 1952) and
[Slide 24] the Cable Car Village (June - July 1953).
[Slide 25] Probably in 1952 he appeared on record again on the obscure Treasure label - on one he backs an organist called Madge Wilson and on the other he accompanies veteran singer Gladys Palmer with his trio - she had recorded with Roy Eldridge as far back as 1938 and for Miracle in Chicago in the late forties. [Play Yesterdays]
[Slide 26] 1954 saw him at Jay Bedworth’s Tunnel Inn in Lafayette for a long run until early 1958 and
[Slide 27] then we find him briefly at the Twelfth Knight restaurant on Sutter (May 1958), and
[Slide 28] after that in the Terrace Lounge of the Claremont Hotel, a gig which began in December 1958 and lasted until April 1970. He played solo piano during the week but at weekends played with a trio for dancing - in 1964 the trio comprised Baranco himself, Walter Sandford on bass and Earl Watkins on drums.
[Slide 29] In October 1970 he was at the Newell House in Walnut Creek, in August 1971 at Patty’s Restaurant piano bar on Grand Lake in Oakland and in the last three months of 1971 at the Danville Hotel. November 1973 saw a return to the Claremont, where he remained until February 1974, before going on to the Cape Cod House in Lafayette where he stayed for six years. He did occasionally work outside the Bay Area - one ad has him ‘just returned from an engagement at Las Vegas Desert Inn’ and Joe Darensbourg recalled playing with him in Seattle.
[Slide 30] Throughout the post-war period he taught piano, both privately and at various third level institutions where he also taught courses on the history of jazz. He retired at the age of 65 but later returned to teaching part-time. He died on October 23, 1983.