Nat Jaffe

Nat Jaffe (January 1, 1918 – August 5, 1945) was an American swing jazz pianist.

He was married to singer Shirley Lloyd.

Jaffe lived in Berlin from 1921 to 1932, where he received classical training on piano.

In the late 1930s he played with Jan Savitt, Joe Marsala and Billie Holiday, and recorded with Louis Armstrong (1938), Charlie Barnet (1938–39) and Jack Teagarden (1940).

Three solo piano pieces (Body And Soul, Liza and I Can't Get Started) were recorded on January 31, 1938, and released by Onyx Records in 1974 on 52nd Street; Volume 2, which also features performances by Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Don Byas.

The line-up of Louis Armstrong's orchestra during a New York recording session on June 24, 1938, included Nat Jaffe on piano, and produced four tracks:

During four recording sessions in New York in 1938 and 1939, Nat Jaffe was part of Charlie Barnet's orchestra.

He shared piano credits with Graham Forbes for the 1938 recordings.

They recorded the following songs:

He led his own trio in the early 1940s and recorded in 1945 with Sarah Vaughan.

In 1940, Jack Teagarden recorded sixteen sides for Varsity, which were reissued in 1986 by Savoy Jazz.

During these sessions, his orchestra included Nat Jaffe on piano.

These recordings were:

On February 26, 1944, he recorded four of eight sides with Sid Jacobs on bass on a memorial album for Fats Waller, with Earl Hines recording the other four, for Signature Records:

The Nat Jaffe Trio, with guitarist Remo Palmieri and bassist Leo Guarnieri, made four recordings on December 21, 1944, for Black and White Records:

Jaffe died in 1945 as a result of complications from high blood pressure at the age of 27.

On January 24, 1945, Jaffe recorded at least one track with this group, featuring Don Byas and Flip Phillips on tenor saxophone, Charlie Shavers on trumpet and Specs Powell on drums: The Jeep Is Jumpin'.

Jaffe played piano on two of three recorded tracks during a recording session on May 25, 1945, in New York:

Upon his return to the U.S., he began playing jazz music, working with Noel Francis, the Emery Deutsch Orchestra, and as a soloist on 52nd Street.