Johnny Răducanu (born Răducan Crețu; 1 December 1931 – 19 September 2011) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

pianist of

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

ethnic background, whose family has a long musical tradition dating back to the 17th century. He was born in

Brăila Brăila (, also , ) is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County. The Sud-Est (development region), ''Sud-Est'' Regional Development Agency is located in Brăila. According to the 2011 Romanian ...

and started playing the double bass at the age of 19 before switching to piano. During his musical career, some of his many collaborations outside Romania were those with

Art Farmer Arthur Stewart Farmer (August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination especially designed for him. He and his identical twin brother, doub ...

(trumpet) and

Slide Hampton Locksley Wellington Hampton (April 21, 1932 – November 18, 2021) was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. As his nickname implies, Hampton's main instrument was slide trombone, but he also occasionally played tuba and flugel ...

(trombone), and Friedrich Gulda (piano). In 1987, Răducanu received an honorary membership in the

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and Singing, vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and se ...

Academy in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. He was the founder of the Romanian Jazz school, and during a musical career spanning over half a century, he discovered, nurtured and trained several generations of Romanian jazz musicians.

Leonard Feather Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...

called him "Mr. Jazz of Romania". He was the President of the Romanian Jazz Federation. Răducanu was married to Geta Costin from 1962 to 1970. Răducanu died at his apartment in Oltarului Street in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north o ...

and is interred in a local cemetery in

Cernica Cernica is a commune in the southeast part of Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania, with a population of 9,425 as of 2002. It is composed of five villages: Bălăceanca, Căldăraru, Cernica, Poșta and Tânganu. The commune lent its name to the Ce ...

Ilfov County Ilfov () is the county that surrounds Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It used to be largely rural, but, after the fall of Communism, many of the county's villages and communes developed into high-income commuter towns, which act like suburbs ...

, close to the capital.Notice of death of Răducanu
Adevarul.ro. Retrieved on 9 May 2017.

Discography

* ''Jazz trio'' – ''Seria jazz'' nr. 4 (Electrecord, 1966) * ''Jazz în țara mea (Jazz in my country)'' (Electrecord, 1967) * ''Confesiuni'' (Electrecord, 1979) * ''Confesiuni II'' (Electrecord, 1982) * ''Confesiuni III'' – ''Seria jazz'' nr. 21 (Electrecord, 1986) * ''Jazz Made in Romania'' (Electrecord, 1987) * ''To His Friends'' (Alpha Publishing, 1996) * ''Jazz Behind the Carpathians – Johnny Raducanu meets Theodora Enache'' (Green Records, 1999) * ''Jazz antifanariot'' (Anastasia, 2002) * ''Jazz Made in Romania – Live in San Francisco'' (Mediaround Inc./Intercont Music, 2002) * ''Jazz Bestament'' (Tescani Productions, 2005) * ''Chamber Jazz Music'' (Soft Productions, 2008) * ''Inside Stories – Jazz Poems'' (Tvr Media, 2009)

Books

* ''Singurătatea, meseria mea'' (Regent House Printing & Publishing, 2002) * ''Țara lui Johnny'' (Vivaldi, 2005)

References

External links

Recording in Meudon, Johnny Răducanu – Mister Jazz of Romania

Johnny Răducanu at All About JazzConcert in San Francisco on Răducanu's 71st birthday
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raducanu, Johnny 1931 births 2011 deaths People from Brăila Romanian Romani people Mainstream jazz double-bassists Romani musicians Romanian jazz double-bassists Romanian jazz pianists 20th-century pianists