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Walter Page Cavanaugh (January 26, 1922 in Cherokee, Kansas – December 19, 2008 in Los Angeles) was an American jazz and pop pianist, vocalist, and arranger.
He began on piano at age nine[1] and played with Ernie Williamson's band in 1938–39[2] before moving to Los Angeles and joining the Bobby Sherwood band at age 20.[1]
While serving in the military during World War II, he met guitarist Al Viola and bassist Lloyd Pratt, with whom he formed a trio. After the war's end they performed together as a trio using the same instrumentation that the Nat King Cole Trio had pioneered in the early 40's (piano, guitar and bass with no drummer), scoring a number of hits in the late 1940s, including "The Three Bears", "Walkin' My Baby Back Home", and "All of Me".[2] The trio appeared in the films A Song Is Born, Big City, Lullaby of Broadway (with Doris Day) and Romance on the High Seas (Doris Day's first film, in 1948).[3][4] He recorded dozens of tracks with Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, June Christy, Mel Torme and other legendary singers.
In the early 1950s, Cavanaugh had a program, Page Pages You, on the short-lived Progressive Broadcasting System.[5] Additionally, the trio played on Frank Sinatra's radio program, Songs by Sinatra,[6] and on The Jack Paar Show.[4]
Cavanaugh played in Los Angeles nightclubs through the 1990s, both in a trio setting (with Viola for many years) and as a septet, the Page 7.[2] He recorded with Bobby Woods & Les Deux Love Orchestra.[7] He recorded for MGM, Capitol, RCA, Tops, Star Line, Tiara, and Dobre Records over the course of his career, releasing his final trio album, Return to Elegance, in 2006.[3]
Cavanaugh died on December 19, 2008, of kidney failure.[4]
- Page Cavanaugh Carries the Torch (ERA, 1956)
- The Girl (Vaya, 1956)
- Page Cavanaugh Plays for the Cocktail Hour (Tops, 1957)
- Fats Sent Me (Capitol, 1957)
- Music for the Cocktail Hour (Craftsmen, 1958)
- Softly (Time, 1964)
- Is Alive (Dobre, 1978)
- Return to Elegance (Moon over Leg, 2006)
Page Cavanaugh died at the age of 86. He died on friday morning after a protracted kidney fairlure at a skilled nursing facility in Granada Hills,[8]
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