Biography Guido Basso

Guido Basso. Flugelhornist, trumpeter, arranger, composer, conductor, harmonica player, b Montreal 27 Sep 1937.

In 1958 he joined singer Pearl Bailey and her bandleader husband, famed drummer Louis Bellson, touring North America with them for three years before moving to Toronto to join the busy studio and television scene there. His playing career as a stand-out sideman and leader soared, and he became one of the biggest jazz names in the country, and beginning in 1975, frequently organized and led big band concerts at Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition featuring jazz luminaries including Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. He can be heard on hundreds of record albums, playing and recording with stars from Buddy Rich and Oliver Jones to Carol Welsman and Diana Kralll.

Guido Basso was a charter member of Rob McConnell’s stellar The Boss Brass, and the Rob McConnell Tentet, playing with the Boss Brass as a featured soloist throughout their lifetime, and appearing on 30 Boss Brass recordings. In the late ‘70s, he formed his namesake society orchestra which became the most prominent feature of major private and public social events in Toronto over ensuing years. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 1994.

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