Peter Dovidio was a nationally known jazz master

Clarinetist and saxophonist Peter Dovidio of West St. Paul played his instruments with the likes of Tex Beneke's big band at clubs in New Orleans, Honolulu and San Francisco, and on national television.

Dovidio, who had lived in the Twin Cities since 1985, died of cancer on Feb. 23 in West St. Paul. The longtime Roseville resident was 75.

"He just had a big talent, a natural talent," said Russ Moore of Champlin, who played with him at the old Emporium of Jazz in Mendota.

In 1987, Dovidio suffered a serious head injury when he fell while ice skating in Roseville. After a coma and many months of therapy at Minneapolis' Sister Kenney Institute, he made a dramatic recovery, wrote former Star Tribune columnist Jim Klobuchar on Oct. 4, 1988.

Dovidio was born in Chicago and grew up in Fresno, Calif.

Dovidio worked in San Francisco from 1952 to 1970 and was a regular on the old Tennessee Ernie Ford television show for three years in the 1960s.

He moved to Honolulu in 1970, backing name acts at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. In 1978, he moved to New Orleans, playing at the Maison Bourbon Jazz Club.

Once he had sat in with Twin Cities jazz groups such as the Mouldy Figs, Bill Evans' New Orleans Jazz Band and guitarist Reuben Ristrom's River Boat Ramblers, they wanted to hire him, Ristrom said.

"He played clarinet like a clarinet player should," Ristrom said. "Whatever tune you called, he would make his own statement with it."

Dovidio, who earned a bachelor's degree at San Francisco State University in the early 1950s and did graduate work, regretted that he didn't also pursue a teaching career, said Cathy Dovidio. For a time, he served as a substitute music teacher in St. Paul.

"He loved his music," she said. "It really defined who he was."

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, Michael of Anchorage, Alaska; a daughter, Pamela Sloan of Half Moon Bay, Calif.; a brother, Phil of California, and five grandchildren.