Eugene Valentino Cherico (April 15, 1935, Buffalo, New York – August 12, 1994, Santa Monica, California) 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 (1957–59), Maynard Ferguson (1959–60), Red Norvo (1961), Benny Goodman (1962), George Shearing (1963), Stan Getz (1964–66), and Peter Nero (1966–70). 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 (1973, 1975), Louie Bellson, Lew Tabackin, Gerry Mulligan (1974), and Akiyoshi playing mostly bass guitar. He also did work as an accompanist to singers such as Peggy Lee (1966), Carmen McRae (1970), Frank Sinatra (1973-1982), and Nancy Wilson. He toured extensively with Sinatra into the next decade. He retired in 1984 after being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Discography

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With Toshiko Akiyoshi

With Paul Desmond

With Stan Getz

  • Getz Au Go Go (Verve, 1964)
  • Getz/Gilberto #2 (Verve, 1965)
  • The Girl from Ipanema (Polydor, 1966)
  • Stan Getz (Verve, 1987)
  • Stan Getz & Friends (Verve, 1988)
  • Joao & Astrud Gilberto Meet Stan Getz (The Entertainers 1988)
  • Nobody Else But Me (Verve, 1994)
  • Live at Newport 1964 (Solitude, 2014)
  • Getz Plays Jobim: The Girl from Ipanema (Verve, 2002)
  • Body and Soul (Verve/Universal, 2006)
  • The Brilliant Canadian Concert of Stan Getz (Can-Am, 2008)

With Astrud Gilberto

  • Brazilian Mood (Metro, 1977)
  • Astrud Gilberto (Verve, 1987)
  • The Astrud Gilberto Album (Jazz Door, 1991)
  • Astrud Gilberto's Finest Hour (Verve, 2001)
  • Astrud for Lovers (Verve, 2004)

With George Shearing

  • Out of the Woods (Capitol, 1964)
  • Rare Form! (Capitol, 1966)

With Frank Sinatra

With Frank Strazzeri

  • Taurus (Revelation, 1973)
  • Frames (Glendale, 1975)

With others

References

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