Charlie Mariano was an American jazz saxophonist born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1923. The son of Italian immigrants, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps after high school before attending Berklee College of Music upon his return. His talent was renowned and he played around Boston with the likes of Shorty Sherock and Chubby Jackson along with his own groups.
A globetrotter by nature, Mariano moved to Los Angeles, Japan and India before settling in Germany in the 1970s. During this time, he played with the legendary Charles Mingus and formed jazz fusion group Osmosis in 1967. A founding member of the United Jazz & Rock Ensemble in 1975, he performed across Europe with a number of different musicians with his versatility seen as an asset as various new forms of jazz were incorporated around this period.
In 1995, Mariano was given a short time to live following a diagnosis of cancer, however he survived for a further 14 years continuing to release music on a consistent basis until his death in June 2009.
