Anthony Alessandrini, better known by his stage name

Stage name

A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

 Tony Aless (August 22, 1921, Garfield, New Jersey

Garfield, New Jersey

Garfield is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 30,487.When the area that is now Garfield was first developed in 1873, it was known as East Passaic. In 1881, the community's name was changed to Garfield in honor of...

 - January 21, 1988) was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 pianist.

Aless worked with Bunny Berigan

Bunny Berigan

Rowland Bernard "Bunny" Berigan was an American jazz trumpeter who rose to fame during the swing era, but whose virtuosity and influence were shortened by a losing battle with alcoholism that ended in his early death at age 33. He composed the jazz instrumentals "Chicken and Waffles" and "Blues"...

 late in the 1930s and with Johnny McGhee, Teddy Powell

Teddy Powell

Teddy Powell was an American jazz guitarist, composer and big band leader...

, and Vaughn Monroe

Vaughn Monroe

Vaughn Wilton Monroe was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader and actor, most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording and radio.-Biography:...

 early in the 1940s. He served in the Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, then played with Charlie Spivak

Charlie Spivak

Charlie Spivak was an American trumpeter and bandleader, best known for his big band in the 1940s.-Biography:...

 and Woody Herman

Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...

. Subsequently he worked with George Auld, Flip Phillips

Flip Phillips

Flip Phillips was an American jazz tenor saxophone and clarinet player. He is best remembered for his work with Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1946 to 1957.-Biography:...

, Chubby Jackson

Chubby Jackson

Greig Stewart 'Chubby' Jackson was an American jazz double-bassist and band leader.Born in New York City, Jackson began at the age of seventeen as a clarinetist, but quickly changed to bass....

, Neal Hefti

Neal Hefti

Neal Hefti was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, tune writer, and arranger. He was perhaps best known for composing the theme music for the Batman television series of the 1960s, and for scoring the 1968 film The Odd Couple and the subsequent TV series of the same name.He began arranging...

, Stan Getz

Stan Getz

Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...

, Elliot Lawrence

Elliot Lawrence

Elliot Lawrence is an American jazz pianist and bandleader.Son of the broadcaster Stan Lee Broza, Lawrence led his first dance band at age 20, but he played swing at the time its heyday was coming to a close. He recorded copiously as a bandleader for Columbia, Decca, King, Fantasy, Vik, and Sesac...

, Seldon Powell

Seldon Powell

Seldon Powell was an American soul jazz, swing and R&B tenor saxophonist and flautist born in Lawrenceville, Virginia, probably best remembered for his early work with musicians like Tab Smith , Lucky Millinder 1949-51), Neal Hefti or Louis Bellson...

, and Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

. He also worked frequently on radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

. His 1955 Roost Records

Roost Records

Roost Records was a record label established in 1949, primarily to record jazz, taking its secondary name from the New York club with which it was associated...

 release Long Island Suite featured J.J. Johnson

J.J. Johnson

J. J. Johnson was a United States jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. He was sometimes credited as Jay Jay Johnson....

 and Kai Winding

Kai Winding

Kai Chresten Winding was a popular Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.-Biography:...

 on trombone and Dave Schildkraut

Dave Schildkraut

Dave Schildkraut was an American jazz alto saxophonist.Schildkraut first played professionally with Louis Prima in 1941...

on saxophone.