🔎

American jazz pianist, composer and bandleader.

Born : August 13, 1913 in Passaic, New Jersey Died : May 14, 1970 in Sherman Oaks, California (age 56).
He was educated at the New York College of Music and was a student of August Fraemcke and Elsa Nicilini. He started out playing piano in Clyde McCoy's band sometime in the 1930s. He gained fame with Freddy Martin And His Orchestra’s band in 1936 when he was featured on Martin’s famous recording of Tonight We Love.
He charted twice as a songwriter with the same song Bumble Boogie by Freddy Martin and His Orchestra (which he played the piano on) in 1946 and in 1961 by B. Bumble and the Stingers. The song was Fina's adaption of the song Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Fina performed it as a solo piano specialty in the 1946 Columbia Pictures musical It's Great to Be Young.