Jazz guitar virtuoso, bandleader, composer, and teacher Carmen Caramanica died January 16, 2023; he was 77 years old.
Carmen was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1945 and moved with his family to Utica, New York, at the age of seven. Carmen’s life took a dramatic turn when he was severely injured in a fall at the age of nine. His injuries kept him bedridden in Utica’s Children’s Hospital for several years. It was during that convalescence that he learned to play the ukulele and then the guitar while flat on his back. As luck would have it, one of the nurses on the ward was married to guitarist George Odell, leader of the Dell Trio. Odell stopped by to give Carmen lessons during his recovery.
