John Daniel LaPorta (April 13, 1920 – May 12, 2004) was a jazz clarinetist and composer.
Born in Philadelphia, he was something of a clarinet prodigy, playing with local bands at ages 10 and 13, and studied music at the Mastbaum School in Philadelphia with fellow clarinetist Buddy DeFranco. There also were teenage gigs with tenor saxophonist Charlie Ventura and trombonist Bill Harris.
From 1942 to 1944, he was a member of the Bob Chester big band, then spent the next two years with the Woody Herman Orchestra. Lessons with Lennie Tristano began in New York in 1948 during the second American Federation of Musicians' recording ban. He also began teaching and became an advocate for the fusion of jazz and classical. He studied classically with Joseph Gigliotti of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Leon Russianoff at the Manhattan School of Music.
LaPorta was such a strong jazz player that he was the clarinetist on the 1951 and 1953 Metronome All Stars sessions. In 1954 he led a quintet that recorded for Debut Records and was part of Charles Mingus's Jazz Composers Workshop sextet. Additional recordings were made for Debut and with Philadelphia's Sandole Brothers Octet.
In the classical world, he worked with Boston Pops, Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski, and Igor Stravinsky. In jazz he worked with Kenny Clarke, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, and Lester Young. John LaPorta had a beautiful tone on the alto saxophone. It was warm and bluesy, and could go anywhere on a solo and sound spot on. It was "in the pocket," as they say. There was a lot of Charlie Parker in his sound, but with less urgency and impatience.
In January 1956, he recorded on a session led by trumpeter Donald Byrd and, in February, on a session led by drummer Kenny Clarke. The former was for Byrd's The Jazz Message and the latter was for Clarke's Klook's Clique. Both dates were for Savoy Records. The only change in personnel on these two sessions was the pianist. Horace Silver was on the Byrd recordings while Ronnie Ball was on the Clarke-led date.
Here’s “Frenesi” from above 1959 album
On August 12, 1956, La Porta was invited to the first jazz concert in Venezuela at Caracas National Theater, where he was backed by the Casablanca Orchestra, Charlie Nagy, Werner Boehm, Walter Albrecht, among others. During his stay in Caracas a selection of the repertoire performed at the concert was released under the title South American Brothers by Fantasy Records, the first jazz recording in Venezuela.
In the later ’50s LaPorta was involved in some noteworthy projects, including the featured role on a later recording by Herman of “Ebony Concerto,” and he was also the reed coach of the 1959 Newport Youth Band. In fact, as the ’50s closed, LaPorta found himself more and more often in stage-band and clinic positions, which led to a lifetime role as an original and innovative jazz educator. He taught at Parkway Music School, then at public schools on Long Island, followed by the Manhattan School of Music and Boston’s Berklee College of Music and performed infrequently after his exodus to acedemics. With guitarist Jack Petersen, he pioneered the use of Greek modes for teaching chord-scales.
He wrote numerous pedagogy texts and worked at Berklee as a full-time staffer until 1985. LaPorta continued lecturing at the college and organizing Berklee’s summer schools through 2000 before retiring to Sarasota, Florida where he performed at the Sarasota Jazz Club and as a guest with the Fred Williams Trio. He did return to recording in 1999 for a session that was released under the title Life Cycle. He also wrote his autobiography, Playing It by Ear.
A legend of the jazz vanguard and an influence on countless students during his 40 year teaching tenure, John LaPorta died from complications of a stroke on May 12, 2004 in Sarasota. He was 84 years old.
(Edited mainly from Wikipedia & Jazzwax)