Frank Marocco obit

Frank Marocco, 81, Was “Ratatouille” Accordionist

 

He was not on the list.

Jazz accor­dion­ist Frank Marocco, one of the world’s most recorded accor­dion play­ers, died Sat­ur­day at his home in California’s San Fer­nando Val­ley. He was 81.

He had been hos­pi­tal­ized ear­lier at Cedars-Sinai Med­ical Cen­ter in Los Ange­les for com­pli­ca­tions fol­low­ing hip replace­ment surgery, his daugh­ter Cyn­thia said.

Marocco played accor­dion and musette in the 2007 Pixar Ani­ma­tion Stu­dios movie Rata­touille.

“Who was squeez­ing the bel­lows as Remy and his bud­dies took over the kitchen at Gusteau’s? Sure enough, it was the hardest-working accor­dion­ist in Hol­ly­wood, Frank Marocco,” accor­dion­ist Chris Sac­cheri wrote on his Let’s Polka weblog that year.

Marocco played an accor­dion solo on “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine,” a song in Blue Sky Stu­dios’ Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs(2009).

His accor­dion was heard on hun­dreds of movie sound­tracks, record­ings, musi­cal the­ater, TV series and spe­cials, com­mer­cials, video games and theme park music. He worked with dozens of com­posers, includ­ing Henry Mancini, John Williams, Quincy Jones, Elmer Bern­stein and Michel Legrand.

Using the accor­dion to play jazz is a rar­ity, but Marocco embraced the prac­tice. “Since I grew up lis­ten­ing to peo­ple like Zoot Sims and Char­lie Parker, I play accor­dion like a jazz horn player, with horn-like lines,” he told the Los Ange­les Times in 2000.

“Frank’s play­ing was always so lyri­cal, warm and full of the kind of har­monic rich­ness that just invited you to step in and

par­tic­i­pate in the beauty of the moment. There were no equals on his instru­ment,” said gui­tarist Larry Koonse, who worked often with Marocco, includ­ing on his lat­est CD. “And the warmth he exhib­ited in his play­ing was mir­rored by the kind­ness he exhib­ited as a human being.”

Frank L. Marocco was born in Joliet, Illi­nois on Jan­u­ary 2, 1931 and grew up in the town of Waukegan, a sub­urb of Chicago. When he was seven years old, his par­ents enrolled him in a six-week trial pro­gram on the accordion.

His first instruc­tor, George Ste­fani, was a source of inspi­ra­tion to him. Marocco stud­ied with him for nine years. His train­ing was in the clas­sics, but his teacher encour­aged him to explore other areas: he played the piano and the clar­inet; he stud­ied music the­ory, har­mony and con­duct­ing; and he was a mem­ber of his high school band.

The next year, he stud­ied with the leg­endary Andy Rizzo, a mas­ter teacher who has influ­enced many of the accor­dion artists in the United States.

At 17, Marocco took first place in a national music con­test, per­form­ing his win­ning solo with the Chicago Pops Orches­tra for a huge crowd at Chicago’s Soldier’s Field.

This might have encour­aged him to see a full-time career in music. He formed a trio which went on tour in sev­eral Mid­west­ern states. Dur­ing his trav­els, he met his future wife, Anne, in South Bend, Indi­ana. Together they decided to head west to make their home in the Los Ange­les area.

Marocco orga­nized a new group which toured the hotel and club cir­cuit of Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Palm Springs. But Hol­ly­wood was beck­on­ing. Being close to the movie and the TV stu­dios offered oppor­tu­ni­ties never avail­able in the Mid­west. He was launched on an unbe­liev­able career — the list of his cred­its is endless.

High­lights included trav­el­ing with Bob Hope vis­it­ing the ser­vice­men in many coun­tries, and being fea­tured on the Les Brown Band, includ­ing six Love Boat cruises. More recently, he was very busy with stu­dio work: movie sound­tracks, TV movies, TV series, records and adver­tis­ing jin­gles. Along the way, he man­aged to find time to com­pose and arrange both jazz and clas­si­cal music.

In 2006, Marocco received a Life­time Achieve­ment Award from the Amer­i­can Accor­dion­ists’ Asso­ci­a­tion. Nom­i­nated for eight con­sec­u­tive eight for the Record­ing Academy’s Most Valu­able Player Award, he received the award in 1985 and 1986. He was inducted into the Accor­dion Hall of Fame in Vicenza, Italy in 2000.

Frank Marocco is sur­vived by his wife of 60 years, Anne; daugh­ters Cyn­thia, Vene­tia and Lisa; and eight grandchildren.

Cyn­thia pur­sued a music career. She stud­ied the flute and, at 13, had the dis­tinc­tion of being the youngest player in the Amer­i­can Youth Sym­phony, a group of high school and col­lege musi­cians directed by Mehli Mehta.

Lisa, attracted to dance, became a pro­fes­sional pair skater and toured for sev­eral sea­sons with the Ice Capades. Vene­tia was a phys­i­cal ther­apy instruc­tor and is now a school teacher.

Frank Marocco also played with some of the best jazz musicians in America and Europe; Ray Brown, Jeff Hamilton, Zoot Sims, Joe Pass, Joey Baron, Herb Ellis, Ray Pizzi, Ivor Malherbe, Carlo Atti, Sam Most, Gian-Carlo Bianchetti, Jacob Fisher, Pekka Sarmanto, Martin Classen, Andy Martin, Tuomo Dahlblom, Ric Todd, Harold Jones, Gerry Gibbs, Mikko Hassinen, Conti Candoli, Philippe Cornaz, John Patitucci, Mats Vinding, Mogens Baekgaard Andersen, Marcel Papaux, Aage Tanggaard, Ron Feuer, Richard Galliano, Peter Erskine, Klaus Paier, Renzo Ruggieri, Massimo Tagliata, Pete Christlieb, Larry Koonse, Simone Zanchini, Andy Simpkins, Bob Shepard, Frank Rosolino, Jim Hall, Abraham Laboriel, Grant Geissman, Luis Conte and Stix Hooper just to name a few.

Marocco performed on a USO tour in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Guam, and other countries in the Pacific, appearing onstage with Bob Hope. He also played in the Les Brown big band, during six Love Boat cruises. Marocco performed in collaboration with hundreds of world-famous artists and conductors during his career, both on stage as well as in studio. As a musician, he contributed to hundreds of movie soundtracks, television shows and TV-series. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences nominated him as the most valuable player eight years in a row.

In the 1960s, Frank Marocco recorded a solo album released by Verve, a legendary jazz record label. In 1966, he worked together with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, and performed on the world-famous album Pet Sounds. He also recorded with Pink Floyd.

Music Department

Leighton Meester, Selena Gomez, and Katie Cassidy in Monte Carlo (2011)

Monte Carlo

5.8

featured musician

2011

 

Seducing Charlie Barker (2010)

Seducing Charlie Barker

6.3

musician

2010

 

The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

The Tale of Despereaux

6.1

musician: accordion

2008

 

Alec Baldwin, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Ben Stiller, Fergie, Bernie Mac, Harland Williams, Bridget Hoffman, Kristen Ariza, Sacha Baron Cohen, John Eric Bentley, Sebastian Cavazza, Cedric The Entertainer, Eric Darnell, John DiMaggio, Holly Dorff, Jackie Gonneau, Danny Jacobs, Stephen Kearin, Phil LaMarr, Danny Mann, Tom McGrath, Edie Mirman, Dan O'Connor, Elisa Gabrielli, Andy Richter, Al Roker, Sherri Shepherd, Lesley Stahl, Fred Tatasciore, Meredith Vieira, Lynnanne Zager, Conrad Vernon, Christopher Knights, David P. Smith, Will.i.am, David Soren, Conner Rayburn, Terrence Hardy, Chris Miller, Thomas Stanley, Zachary Gordon, Willow Smith, Quinn Dempsey Stiller, Declan Swift, and Kristen Phaneuf in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

6.6

musician: accordion

2008

 

Drew Barrymore, George Lopez, Rusco, and Angel in Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008)

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

3.9

musician (as Frank Morocco)

2008

 

Miracle at St. Anna (2008)

Miracle at St. Anna

6.1

musician: accordion

2008

 

Freddie Highmore in The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

The Spiderwick Chronicles

6.5

musician: accordion (uncredited)

2008

 

Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti in Fred Claus (2007)

Fred Claus

5.6

musician: accordion

2007

 

Susan Sarandon, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, and Amy Adams in Enchanted (2007)

Enchanted

7.1

musician: accordion

2007

 

Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, Peter O'Toole, Brian Dennehy, John Ratzenberger, James Remar, Will Arnett, Brad Garrett, Kathy Griffin, Brad Bird, Lindsey Collins, Walt Dohrn, Tony Fucile, Michael Giacchino, Bradford Lewis, Danny Mann, Teddy Newton, Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Peter Sohn, Jake Steinfeld, Stéphane Roux, Lori Richardson, Thomas Keller, Julius Callahan, Marco Boerries, Andrea Boerries, and Jack Bird in Ratatouille (2007)

Ratatouille

8.1

accordion and musette

musician

2007

 

Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

7.1

musician: accordion

2007

 

Lavinia's Heist

6.6

Short

musician: accordion

2007

 

Adrift in Manhattan (2007)

Adrift in Manhattan

5.5

score musician: accordion

2007

 

Flushed Away (2006)

Flushed Away

6.6

musician: accordion

2006

 

Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

7.4

musician: accordion

2006

 

Paul Newman, Michael Keaton, Katherine Helmond, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, John Ratzenberger, Tony Shalhoub, Andrew Stanton, Mario Andretti, Jay Leno, Randy Newman, Owen Wilson, George Carlin, Lindsey Collins, Bob Costas, Paul Dooley, Richard Kind, Jenifer Lewis, Edie McClurg, Adrian Ochoa, Richard Petty, Guido Quaroni, Joe Ranft, Jonas Rivera, Lou Romano, Michael Wallis, Humpy Wheeler, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ray Magliozzi, Tom Magliozzi, Larry the Cable Guy, Darrell Waltrip, E.J. Holowicki, Michael Schumacher, Mike Nelson, Lynda Petty, Elissa Knight, Larry Benton, Douglas Keever, and Sarah Clark in Cars (2006)

Cars

7.2

musician: orchestra

2006

 

The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie (2005)

The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie

4.0

musician: accordion

2005

 

Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Shelby Hoffman, and Kara Hoffman in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

A Series of Unfortunate Events

6.8

musician: accordion

2004

 

Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Masasa Moyo, and Kristen Miller in Team America: World Police (2004)

Team America: World Police

7.2

musician: accordion

2004

 

Will Smith and Jack Black in Shark Tale (2004)

Shark Tale

6.0

musician: accordion

2004

 

Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give (2003)

Something's Gotta Give

6.7

featured musician

2003

 

In the Name of Love (2003)

In the Name of Love

8.0

musician: accordion

2003

 

Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Suarez in Brother Bear (2003)

Brother Bear

6.8

musician: accordion (uncredited)

2003

 

Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

Under the Tuscan Sun

6.7

featured musician: accordion

2003

 

Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman in Matchstick Men (2003)

Matchstick Men

7.3

musician

2003

 

Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

8.1

musician: accordion

2003

 

Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, and Barry Humphries in Finding Nemo (2003)

Finding Nemo

8.2

musician: accordion (uncredited)

2003

 

Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss in The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Matrix Reloaded

7.2

musician: accordion

2003

 

Treasure Planet (2002)

Treasure Planet

7.2

musician: accordion (uncredited)

2002

 

Billy Crystal and John Goodman in Monsters, Inc. (2001)

Monsters, Inc.

8.1

musician: accordion (uncredited)

2001

 

The Wonderful World of Disney (1997)

The Wonderful World of Disney

7.4

TV Series

musician

2000

1 episode

 

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in Toy Story 2 (1999)

Toy Story 2

7.9

musician: accordion (uncredited)

1999

 

The Big Kahuna (1999)

The Big Kahuna

6.5

musician: accordion

1999

 

Bruce Willis in Breakfast of Champions (1999)

Breakfast of Champions

4.5

musician: accordion

1999

 

Nathan Lane and Lee Evans in Mousehunt (1997)

Mousehunt

6.5

musician: accordion (uncredited)

1997

 

Michael Jordan and Billy West in Space Jam (1996)

Space Jam

6.5

musician: accordion (uncredited)

1996

 

Harrison Ford in Sabrina (1995)

Sabrina

6.3

musician: accordion (uncredited)

1995

 

Kevin Costner in Wyatt Earp (1994)

Wyatt Earp

6.7

musician: accordion (uncredited)

1994

 

Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin in Midnight Run (1988)

Midnight Run

7.5

musician

1988

 

Paternity (1981)

Paternity

4.9

musician: accordion (uncredited)

1981

 

Jodie Foster and Gary Busey in Carny (1980)

Carny

6.4

musician: accordion (uncredited)

1980

 

Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor in Lucky Star (1929)

Lucky Star

7.7

musician: accordion - restored version

1929

 

Actor

Heather Tom, Thorsten Kaye, and Katherine Kelly Lang in The Bold and the Beautiful (1987)

The Bold and the Beautiful

3.4

TV Series

Musician

2005

1 episode

 

Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu in Charlie's Angels (2000)

Charlie's Angels

5.6

Accordionist

2000

 

Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon (1999)

Man on the Moon

7.4

Mama Rivoli's Band

1999

 

Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael McElroy in The Deep End of the Ocean (1999)

The Deep End of the Ocean

6.3

Bandleader

1999

 

America 2-Night (1978)

America 2-Night

8.4

TV Series

The Mirth Makers

1978

1 episode

 

Martin Mull and Fred Willard in Fernwood Tonight (1977)

Fernwood Tonight

8.6

TV Series

Frankie Carbone

1977

16 episodes

 

Cary Grant and Leslie Caron in Father Goose (1964)

Father Goose

7.3

Accordionist (uncredited)

1964

 

Soundtrack

Jersey Boys (2014)

Jersey Boys

6.8

performer: "Accordion to Me", "Italy's Waltz"

writer: "Accordion to Me", "Italy's Waltz"

2014

 

John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Ray Romano, and Chris Wedge in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

6.9

performer: "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine"

2009

 

Around the Bend (2004)

Around the Bend

6.4

writer: "Dean's Always Right", "Overtime Blues"

2004

 

Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss in The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Matrix Reloaded

7.2

performer: "Niaiserie" (uncredited)

2003

 

Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu in Charlie's Angels (2000)

Charlie's Angels

5.6

arranger: "When Angels Yodel"

writer: "When Angels Yodel"

2000

 

Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon in Election (1999)

Election

7.3

performer: "God Whispers to Constantine"

1999

 

Mafia! (1998)

Mafia!

5.5

writer: "Ciao, Ciao Palermo"

1998

 

Sophia Loren, Ann-Margret, Jack Lemmon, and Walter Matthau in Grumpier Old Men (1995)

Grumpier Old Men

6.6

writer: "Liar's Polka"

1995

 

Ann-Margret, Jack Lemmon, and Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men (1993)

Grumpy Old Men

7.0

writer: "Liar's Polka"

1993

 

Family Prayers (1993)

Family Prayers

5.4

performer: "O Sole Mio"

1993