Mouse Bonati

Joe “Mouse” Bonati was arguably one of jazz history’s most-underrated alto saxophone players. Today his name remains unknown tomany and is completely ignored by jazz dictionaries and encyclopedias.

This skilled musician was born Joseph J. Bonati on June 14, 1930, in Buffalo, NY. He was a thin boy with large eyes and was often seen running around his hometown, which earned him the nickname “Mouse”. Due to problems at home, he had a fairly difficult adolescence, and this affected his personality somewhat. He enjoyed listening to jazz from an early age and started learning the alto saxophone at the age of 14 began. He taught himself to play and learned quickly. By the age of 16 he was playing in local bands. An instinctively antisocial young man, Mouse soon became involved in drugs, which led to himbeing arrested more than once.

Things rarely went well for him, and his introverted...

Read more

Mouse Bonati Albums

1 record