Livoti, Joseph “Joe” (24th September 1912-1998

Violinist born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who recorded with ’50s fixtures such as Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Nat King Cole, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Carmen McRae, Anita O’Day, Frank Sinatra, and George Wallington, before eventually winding up on The Lawrence Welk Show, where his daughter Sylvia also appeared as a singer.

One of his earliest recordings is the 1953 boxed set, The Complete Capitol Singles Collection, by Frank Sinatra. In 1957, he was in the string section on Louis Armstrong’s album, You Turned the Tables on Me. He appears on the 1959 recordings This is Darin and Dean Martin’s Christmas album, A Winter Romance. A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra also features Joe on violin.

In 1961, he teamed up with Nat King Cole on The Billy May Session, and offered string support on Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Books. A year later, he played on the thematically disparate Hymns from the Heart by Johnny Cash and Italian Love Songs by Dean Martin. He and Cash both appear on the movie and TV western anthology, My Rifle, My Pony and Me. In the early ’60s, he collaborated with Duane Eddy, and can be heard on the compilation, The RCA Years (1962-1964).

In the early ’70s, he turned to film soundtrack work, performing on the Lalo Schifrin scores for Dirty Harry and Enter the Dragon. He also worked on several Earth, Wind & Fire albums, including The Essential Earth, Wind & Fire, Fantasy, Greatest Hits, I Am, and Saturday Nite, and The Emotions’ 1978 release, Sunbeam. In 1979, he reuinited with Frank Sinatra on his boxed set, Trilogy.

Other anthologies you can hear him on are Phil Spector’s Back to Mono, Ultimate Anita O’Day, and Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones.

He passed away in 1998 when he was 86 years old.

https://youtu.be/ga1MCPYjptc

Sources:

Livoti, Joseph “Joe” (24th September 1912-1998)

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