2006 West Texas Jazz Party Featured Artist

Johnny Varro - Piano

Johnny Varro was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. He began studying piano at the age of ten. During his teenage years he was introduced to Jazz by way of the Commodore Music Shop in N. Y. C. There he met the manager Jack Crystaltitho was running jam sessions on the lower East side. At these sessions Johnny met some of the greatest players of the era such as Willie "The Lion" Smith, "Big Sid" Catlett, Joe Thomas, "Hot Lips" Page, Joe Sullivan, Pete Brown and others. The experience of sitting in for Joe Sullivan and Willie "The Lion" was invaluable and soon allowed Johnny to become a hired player.

Johnny's first professional job was with Bobby Hackett touring the East Coast with his quartet. In 1954 he worked at Nick's with Phil Napoleon and later with Pee Wee Erwin. In 1957 Eddie Condon asked Johnny to play at his club as intermission pianist. During that gig he met more musicians who began calling him for jobs. The Condon gig extended into Johnny becoming Condon's band pianist. The players in Condon's band at the time included Buck Clayton, Wild Bill Davison, Pee Wee Russell, Bud Freeman, Cutty Cutshall, George Wettling, Yank Lawson, Peanuts Hucko and others.

For the next several years between the Condon tours Johnny worked most of the Jazz rooms around New York including The Embers, The Roundtable, Condon's uptown with Edmund Hall, The Metropole and many others. Musicians such as Henry "Red" Allen, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Shavers and Jo Jones helped further his musical education.

In 1965 he moved to Miami Beach and worked on the Jackie Gleason show, -He also worked with Flip Philips, Billy Butterfield, Phil Napoleon and toured with the Dukes of Dixieland.

After living for fourteen years in Los Angeles he returned to Florida, this time in the Tampa Bay area. Presently, Johnny enjoys playing in Jazz Festivals all over the world. His high visibility on the Jazz scene has made him one of the more popular Jazz pianists. As noted by many Jazz critics; THE BEAT IS ALWAYS THERE!

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