1. Adele Beatrice Girard Marsala was a jazz harpist associated with dixieland and swing music.
15 Facts About Adele Girard
1. 2.
Adele Girard is the first woman to bring the concert harp to prominence in jazz, with only Casper Reardon preceding her.
3.
Adele Girard's father, Leon, was a violinist who conducted and played in the pit orchestra for silent movies at the Bijou Theater in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
4.
Adele Girard conducted the Holyoke City Band and the Springfield Broadcast Symphony.
5.
Adele Girard taught both her children, Adele and Don, how to play piano.
6.
When she was four, Adele Girard accompanied her uncles as they sang "K-K-K-Katie" and "Over There", songs from the First World War.
7.
Adele Girard replaced harpist Casper Reardon, who had been hired for a Broadway show.
8.
Adele Girard asked the proprietor of Hickory House to keep her on, and he introduced her to Joe Marsala.
9.
Adele Girard introduced her to Shelly Manne, Charlie Byrd, Gene DiNovi, and Neal Hefti.
10.
Adele Girard had perfect pitch and could improvise any tune on the spot.
11.
In 1946, Marsala found a job at ABC as a studio musician while Adele Girard worked for NBC.
12.
Adele Girard helped organize the album Warm and Sentimental by clarinetist Bobby Gordon on which Girard recorded.
13.
Back in Chicago, Adele Girard drifted out of music and spent her time restoring furniture, drawing, painting, and ice skating.
14.
Adele Girard played piano for some of the shows and occasionally filled an acting role.
15.
Adele Girard died from congestive heart failure in Denver, Colorado, in 1993.