| Birth: | Jan. 16, 1903 | | Death: | Apr. 17, 1971 | 
Songwriting brother of bandleader Guy Lombardo. Played 1st alto saxophone and flute with Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians and was the band's original male vocalist. He penned some of the band's biggest hits such as "Little Coquette," "Sweethearts On Parade," "Boo-Hoo," "Seems Like Old Times," and "Get Out Those Old Records" to name a few.His style of playing the saxophone, which was simply to play it naturally without any gimmicks, set the style for the band and created a phenomenon that no band has been able to match. When he provided vocals, he sang them exactly the way he played his sax. His vocalizing influenced many vocalists of the 1930's. But like his saxophone playing, it was often imitated, but never duplicated. Although Kenny Gardner was hired in 1940 to take his place as lead vocalist with the band, Carmen continued to sing in The Lombardo Trio and as a solo vocalist (usually on songs he had written) right up until his death.He and brother Guy formed the band around 1912, still kids in theirhometown of London, Ontario, Canada. He remained with the orchestra untilcancer took his life in April of 1971.He appeared on the televised 1970 New Year's Eve. Show (an annual tradition with the band) looking rather weak, but was determined to continue on as long as he could.His last written song was "What Have We Done To Our World.” While it was never officially published, The Royal Canadians did record the tuneshortly before his death.Carmen was married to Florence Haas, whom he met in Cleveland in the mid-1920's. They had no children. (bio by: Joe Enroughty)
Search Amazon for Carmen Lombardo | | | Burial:
Pinelawn Memorial Park
Farmingdale
Suffolk County
New York, USA |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by: Joe Enroughty
Record added: Dec 06, 2004
Find A Grave Memorial# 10045478 |
|
|
|
Do you have a photo to add? Click here |
(4.1 after 45 votes)
