Sharkey Bonano

Sharkey Bonano
Bonano performs (center at microphone) in New Orleans in 1950. Photo by Stanley Kubrick
Background information
Birth name	Joseph Gustaf Bonano
Also known as	Sharkey Banana Sharkey Bananas
Born	(1904-04-09)April 9, 1904 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	March 27, 1972(1972-03-27) (aged 67) New Orleans
Genres	Jazz, Dixieland
Occupation	Musician
Instrument	Trumpet
Years active	1920s–1960s

Joseph Gustaf "Sharkey" Bonano (April 9, 1904 – March 27, 1972), also known as Sharkey Banana or Sharkey Bananas, was a jazz trumpeter, band leader, and vocalist. His musical abilities were sometimes overlooked because of his love of being an entertainer; he would often sing silly lyrics in a high raspy voice and break into dance on stage.

Biography

Bonano was born in the Milneburg neighborhood of New Orleans near Lake Pontchartrain. In the 1920s he was in the New Orleans bands of Freddie Newman and Chink Martin. After moving to New York City, he found work as a member of the Wolverines and with Jimmy Durante. He worked next to Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke as a member the Jean Goldkette orchestra. At the end of the 1920s led a band which included Louis Prima. During the 1930s he formed the Sharks of Rhythm and played in the Original Dixieland Jass Band.

After World War II he toured Europe, Asia, and South America, played residencies in Chicago and New York, and then was a regular on Bourbon Street in the New Orleans French Quarter. In 1949, he appeared at the Roosevelt Hotel's Blue Room and the Famous Door Bar.

Discography

• Sharkey's Southern Comfort (1950)
• Kings of Dixieland (Capitol, 1950)
• A Night in Old New Orleans (Capitol, 1950)
• Sharkey Bonano (Circle, 1951)
• Sounds of New Orleans, Vol. 4: Live at the Perez Club (Storyville, 1952)
• Midnight on Bourbon Street (1952
• Sharkey Bonano (Southland, 1954)
• Recorded in New Orleans, Vol. 1 (Good Time Jazz, 1956)
• Sharkey Bonano w/ Santo Pecora and George Girard (Southland, 1956)
• In a New Orleans Jam Session (Southland, 1958)
• Dixieland at the Roundtable (Roulette, 1960)
• Sharkey Bonano at the Municipal Auditorium 1949 (GHB, 2010)
• Sharkey Bonano and His Sharks of Rhythm (Jazz Classics)
• Sharkey & His Kings of Dixieland (GHB, 1995)