13 Facts About Tony Campise

Anthony Sebastian Campise was an American jazz musician.

Tony Campise primarily played tenor saxophone and flute though he was a multireedist who used clarinet and oboe.

Tony Campise was known for his exceptional technique and fluid style on all reed instruments; Campise is most recognized for his association with the Stan Kenton Orchestra in the mid-1970s.

Tony Campise was born and raised in Houston, Texas and early on had studied with Hal Tennyson at the age of 13 on alto sax and clarinet.

Tony Campise studied with the famed Woody Herman jazz sideman Jerry Coker learning improvisation when he was 18, Campise studied briefly with Lee Konitz.

Tony Campise studied flute and oboe extensively with Byron and Barbara Hester in the 1960s; most notably he studied flute with Julius Baker in New York during the late 1960s in hopes of becoming a classical flutist.

Tony Campise's saxophone style was eloquent, warm, and personal on ballads while muscular on up tempo jazz pieces ; he was a devotee of the "Texas Tenor" jazz styles of Arnett Cobb and Illinois Jacquet.

Tony Campise was a native of Houston, Texas and developed a musical style and career there but eventually settled to Austin, Texas in 1984.

Tony Campise has such tremendous technique he can't help but use it.

Tony Campise would take a lot of wild chances and scare guys to death, the things he would get going on that horn.

Tony Campise performed in the jazz clubs in and around 6th Street in Austin, and backed artists such as Frank Sinatra, The Manhattan Transfer, and Sarah Vaughan starting in 1984 where he finally settled.

Tony Campise recorded five albums in the 1990s; his 1991 album Once in a Blue Moon was nominated for a Grammy in the jazz category.

Tony Campise had never fully recovered from an October 2009 fall outside a Corpus Christi, Texas hotel, when he hit the back of his head.