Stan Wrightsman

Wrightsman, whose father was a musician, began playing professionally in a Gulfport, Mississippi hotel, and in territory bands in Oklahoma.{{cite book |url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.J492400 |title=The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz |publisher=The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians |edition=2nd |year=2002 |isbn=978-1561592630}} In 1930, he moved to New Orleans where he played with Ray Miller. From 1935–1936 he worked with Ben Pollack in Chicago. An illness (TB) interrupted his career, after which he worked in California with the orchestra of Seger Ellis in 1937. His first recordings were made soon thereafter, especially with Spike Jones and his City Slickers.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Wrightsman played with various big bands and ensembles (mainly Traditional Jazz), including Artie Shaw, Wingy Manone, Eddie Miller, Rudy Vallee, Nappy Lamare, Johnny Mercer,{{cite book |first=Glenn T. |last=Eskew |title=Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World |publisher=University of Georgia Press |year=2013 |page=177 |isbn=978-0820333304}} Harry James, Bob Crosby (1950–51), Matty Matlock, Pete Fountain, The Rampart Street Paraders, Ray Bauduc, Wild Bill Davison, and Bob Scobey. He also appeared on the soundtrack of Blues in the Night (1941), in which he stood in for Richard Whorf on piano,{{cite book |first=Sheri Chinen |last=Biesen |title=Music in the Shadows: Noir Musical Films |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1421408385}} Syncopation (1942),{{cite book |first=Rebecca D. |last=Clear |title=Jazz on film and video in the Library of Congress |publisher=Library of Congress |year=1993 |page=137 |asin=B0006P5AG8}} the Jack Webb film Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), and the Red Nichols biopic The Five Pennies (1959). In the feature film The Crimson Canary, Wrightsman appeared as a pianist.

In the 1960s, Wrightsman reunited with Pete Fountain and continued his work with Hollywood film studios. At the end of the decade, he moved to Las Vegas, where he played as a sideman for Wayne Newton and Flip Wilson. In the field of jazz, he was involved in 174 recording dates from 1937 to 1971, including sessions with Louis Armstrong, Eartha Kitt,{{cite book |first=Tom |last=Lord |title=The Jazz Discography |year=1997 |isbn=978-1881993155}} George Van Eps,{{cite magazine |title=Reviews and Ratings of New Popular Albums |magazine=Billboard |page=24 |date=September 10, 1955 |issn=0006-2510}} and Peggy Lee—whom he accompanied on the celesta for the song "That Old Feeling" in 1944.{{cite magazine |title=Popular Record Reviews |magazine=Billboard |page=65 |date=August 5, 1944 |issn=0006-2510}}

In 1948, Beat Generation author Neal Cassady described Wrightsman as "a greatly underrated French player."{{cite book |first=Neal |last=Cassady |authorlink=Neal Cassady |editor-first=Dave |editor-last=Moore |others=Introduction by Carolyn Cassady |title=Collected Letters, 1944–1967 |chapter=Letter to Bill Tomson on August 10, 1948 |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-0142002179}}

Married Mittie (Fisher) Wrightsman, 1933 - divorced 1964 - 1 son Charles Stanley Wrightsman, born April 30, 1943 -

{{Reflist}}

• {{AllMusic |class=artist |id=stan-wrightsman-mn0000011070}}
• {{Discogs artist|1341190-Stan-Wrightsman}}
• {{IMDb name|0942949}}
• {{Find a Grave|136144139}}
• [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/112513 Stan Wrightsman recordings] at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.

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Category:1910 births

Category:1975 deaths

Category:American jazz pianists

Category:American male jazz pianists

Category:20th-century American musicians

Category:Musicians from Oklahoma

Category:Musicians from Palm Springs, California

Category:Burials at Coachella Valley Public Cemetery

Category:Jazz musicians from California

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:20th-century American pianists