Norman Amadio

Who is Norman Amadio?

Albert Norman Benedict "Norm" Amadio is a Canadian jazz pianist, piano teacher, music coach, composer, arranger, session player, band leader and accompanist. For a span of fifty years he worked for the CBC as an orchestra leader and musical director for many TV series. In 1956, he became the first and only Canadian to play at the original Birdland in NYC and while playing opposite Duke Ellington.

In 1943, he performed at a Victory Bond concert with Gracie Fields, and was asked to travel on a Canadian tour; his parents denied him permission because of his age. At age 15, Norman really loved Art Tatum and was inspired by him. Norm soon after found inspiration from Be-boppers like Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Horace Silver. Norman eventually left Timmins for Toronto when he was 17 to study music with Boris Berlin at the Royal Conservatory for six months. He played jazz after hours, influenced by the Be-bop pianists. Subsequently Amadio was influential in starting the be-bop jazz music scene in Toronto, attracting many jazz notables from Canada and the US to sit in and work with him. He became one of the most sought after players in Toronto.

Norman Amadio was a prominent figure in the late 1940s and early 1950s at the House of Hambourg in Toronto and subsequently became one of the city's leading accompanists. After working in the early 1950s in the lounge groups of Jim Younger, Chicho Valle, and Jimmy Amaro, he led the house band at the Old Town Tavern for fifteen years. Word traveled to the United States about Norman's playing and American superstars in jazz began to flock to Toronto to work with him. Some of the American jazz stars who came to work with Norman Amadio's Trio in Canada included: Roy Eldridge, Stan Getz, Bill Harris, Coleman Hawkins, Zoot Sims, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Chet Baker, Anita O'Day, Bud Johnson, Sonny Stitt, Miles Davis, Carmen McRae, Joe Williams, Carol Sloane, Dinah Washington, Red Mitchell, Phip Phillips, Maxine Sullivan, Irene Krall and Lee Konitz.