Hotchkiss

Born Giacinto Figlia in Palermo, Italy in 1924 the young George Wallington was schooled in opera and the classics by his father and had moved to New York City by 1925. It was hearing Lester Young playing in the Basie band that led to him to get involved in the New York jazz scene where he soon found himself accompanying Billie Holiday at George’s club in Greenwich Village and perhaps more unlikely also playing opposite Liberace in Philadelphia! Wallington was back in New York when Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie set the place on fire with a new sound called Be Bop. Although he had arrived at his style independently he was likened to Bud Powell and he became one of the few white musicians to be invited to play what was essentially a black musical movement…