Gene Cherico

Who was Gene Cherico?

Eugene Valentino "Gene" Cherico was an American jazz double-bassist.

Cherico played drums as a child and played in a special services band in the Army, but injured his hand and picked up double bass as therapy. He attended the Berklee College of Music, where he met Toshiko Akiyoshi, with whom he would tour and record intermittently for many years. He also worked as a sideman with Herb Pomeroy, Maynard Ferguson, Red Norvo, Benny Goodman, George Shearing, Stan Getz, and Peter Nero. He also recorded with Gary Burton and Joe Morello in 1961 and with Paul Desmond in 1961 and 1963.

Cherico spent much of the 1970s as a studio musician, working with Frank Strazzeri, Louie Bellson, Lew Tabackin, Gerry Mulligan, and Akiyoshi. He also did work as an accompanist to singers such as Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Frank Sinatra, and Nancy Wilson. He toured extensively with Sinatra into the next decade. He retired in 1984 after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.