Tony Mottola

Anthony C. "Tony" Mottola (April 18, 1918 – August 9, 2004) was an American jazz guitarist who released dozens of solo albums. He was born in Kearny, New Jersey, and died in Denville.

Career Like many of his contemporaries, Mottola began learning to play the banjo, but then took up the guitar. He had his first guitar lessons from his father. He toured with an orchestra led by George Hall in 1936, marking the beginning of his professional life.

Mottola's first recordings were duets with the guitarist Carl Kress. By the age of only twenty-one, he was recruited by Kress to serve as a staff guitarist at the CBS Radio network. During his tenure with the network, he founded the Tony Mottola Trio which was featured on Johnny Desmond's show Face the Music. In 1945, he also collaborated with the accordionist John Serry Sr. in a recording of "Leone Jump" for Sonora Records (MS-476-3) which was played in jukeboxes throughout the U.S. In 1946, he also joined forces with Serry and other members of the Joe Biviano Accordion and Rhythm Sextette in a recording for Sonora Records which included Tom Delaney's composition "Jazz Me Blues" (Accordion Capers, MS-476). Subsequently, in 1948, Mottola's trio collaborated with Carole Coleman and Danny Daniels on the CBS program Make Mine Music. During his tenure at CBS, Mottola also collaborated with Sidney Lumet, Paddy Chayefsky, John Frankenheimer, and Rod Serling. From 1958 to 1972, he was a member of The Tonight Show Orchestra led by Skitch Henderson, He retired from the music business in 1988 but kept playing at home almost every day.

As leader Let's Put Out the Lights (RCA Camden, 1956) Mr. Big: Tony Mottola...Guitar (Command, 1959) Roman Guitar (Command, 1960, No. 26 US) String Band Strum-Along (Command, 1961) Folk Songs (Command, 1961) Roman Guitar – Vol 2 (Command, 1961, No. 41 US) Hymie Shertzer, All the King's Saxes (Disneyland, 1958) Roy Smeck, The Magic Ukulele of Roy Smeck Wizard of the Strings (ABC-Paramount, 1959) Lou Stein, Eight for Kicks Four for Laughs (Jubilee, 1956) Kirby Stone Four, Frank Loesser's Broadway Hit Guys & Dolls (Columbia, 1962) Sylvia Syms, Syms by Sinatra (Reprise, 1982) Cootie Williams, Cootie Williams in Hi-Fi (RCA Victor, 1958)

Archived works Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History preserved a copy of Tony Mottola's performance with the accordionists Joe Biviano and John Serry from the album Accordion Capers (Sonora, MS-476, 1946) as part of its permanent collection.