GUITARIST WALLY RICHARDSON

  • Local 802 AF of M 1946, NJREA, BCREA
  • Boyer #1 FAM PHA NYC
  • Dallas PA Lodge #531 F&AM (present)

Wally Richardson was born of Virginia parents on June 4, 1930 in Harlem, New York City.

1940’s: Performed with his High School Band in Brooklyn, N.Y., The Parisian Dance Land with The Eddie Coomb’s Band, The Cedric Wallace Trio in Canada and gigged with pianist Al Richardson’s (brother) dance band.

1950’s: Drafted into the army in Sept. 1951 where he served with “The 173rd Army Band” at Ft. Dix N.J. and The “The 9th Army Band” at Ladd Air force Base, Fairbanks, Alaska. After being discharged he received credits from Manhattan School of Music, worked with The Dayton Selby Duo in Brooklyn, The Vin Strong trio at Smalls Paradise”, and Roger Ramirez at The Shalimar by Randolph. He then toured the country with Willis Jackson’s band and The Wild Bill Davis Trio. He worked with The Dick Vance Band at The Savoy Ballroom, King Curtis band at The Apollo Theatre, The Taft Jordan Quintet and Bud Johnson’s Band at Birdland. He also worked with Nat Pierce, The Neil Hefty band with Peggy Lee at “Basin Street East”, at “ The Half Note” with The Ray Bryant and Sir Roland Hanna Trios. With recommendations from Everett Barksdale and Milt Hinton, he became involved in studio work for the next fourteen years during which time he recorded with many artist including Mahalia Jackson under the direction of Mitch Miller.

1960’s: Performed with Leroy Kirkland for “The Alan Fried Shows”, The Sammy Lowe Studio Band, The Cy Oliver Orchestra for The Martin Luther King benefit at Carnegie Hall, at The Worlds Fair and The Great Gorge, N.J. Playboy Club with The Billy Dennison Band, Lee Evan’s Band at The Royal Box, N.Y., The Thad and Hank Jones band for Gloria DeHaven at Basin Street East, The Gerald Wilson Band for Damita Jo at “Basin Street East”, The Four Tops Motown tour which included Ryder college N.J. and Cornell University, James Brown (say it loud) on Polydor Records., Jonah Jones at Capital Recording Studios, Jimmy Rushing for Impulse Records. As a Prestige Studio Musician he recorded with such artist as Oliver Nelson , Sam “The Man” Taylor, Buddy Tate, Big Al Sears, Groove Holmes, Johnny “Hammond” Smith, Etta Jones and Betty Roche. He recorded with Errol Garner for Telarchive Records after which the group performed in concert at Carnegie Hall. The group included Milt Hinton (contractor) and Herbie Lovell. Again with Milt Hinton (bass) and Herbie Lovell (drums) he recorded with Tony Bennet under the direction of Hugo Montenegro. He also performed as a studio musician with Joe Raposo’s Orchestra with whom he worked on the “Skitch Henderson’s New York” daytime T.V. Show and “The Sesame Street” Children’s Show. He Recorded two rare Christmas albums with Louis Armstrong (one in Italian and the other in Spanish) at Decca studios. Henry Jerome was the contractor and Dick Jacobs was the A&R man. Also recorded with Lucky Thompson (Decca Studios) and Sarah Vaughn at Fine sound Studios (Clyde Otis Producer).

1970’s: Performed with Benny Carter’s Band (Princeton University), 1975 took off a semester from Rutgers University to do a two month tour of Japan With “Sam The Man” Taylor. 1976played weekend tours with Benny Goodman, performed with Johnny Hartman at Michael’s Pub, The Harold Mayburn Trio, Alberta Hunter (remember my name track) John Hammond Producer, Ruth Brown at The Cookery, Charles Brown and Joe Turner at Tramps in the Village, Gunther Schuler With the New York Philharmonic at Alice Tully Hall, In 1978 Wally Richardson Graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A. and a Certification in Music Education. He taught at Essex County College, and The Jazz Mobile Workshop for eleven years and in The Teaneck and Englewood N.J. School Systems for fifteen years from which he retired in 1993.

Wally has been happily married to Vivian L. Richardson, RN who is a Lincoln School of Nursing (Bronx, N.Y.) graduate, since 1955.  Wally and Vivian have a son Jayson F. Richardson, who is married to Melissa C. Richardson. Jayson and Melissa have two lovely daughters,  Jazmin R. Richardson and Deja N. Richardson.