New Information Surfaces on Charlie Palloy

Following my article on singer-guitarist Charlie Palloy, published back in November, one of our readers, identified simply as "Crown Records," wrote me a message to let me know that further information on Palloy had surfaced right around the time when I was doing the research for my article. Apparently, Palloy, whose real name was Carmino Molluzzo and was the son of Italian immigrants who settled down in New York City, enjoyed a longer career in music than was previously thought, although he recorded as Charlie Palloy only for Crown and Columbia, which perhaps accounts for the scarcity of information previously available on him. Afterwards he changed his name to Charlie Costello and moved to Detroit, where he ran a nightclub for several years. According to the message from our friend "Crown Records," a full-length article is currently under preparation and will soon appear in the magazine VJM's Jazz & Blues Mart. For more information, you can visit this very interesting Facebook page devoted to artists who recorded for the old Crown label. And, of course, I am grateful to our reader "Crown Records" for this message, which somehow fulfills the wish for more information about Palloy that I made toward the end of my article!

And here is Charlie Palloy's version of Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," cut for Crown in January of 1932.