Born Tito Gidotti, October 22nd, 1910 in Chicago, Illinois, he is best known as plain "Tito", probably one of the first and finest exponents of real jazz on the accordion.

Tito started his professional career at an early age and by 1928 was on the staff of radio station WLS Chicago.  Within two years he was off to New York and Broadway, where he joined the Frank and Milt Britton Band.  He played in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931 and 1932, at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York.  The show ran a year on Broadway and Tito then went on to play leading vaudeville theatres in America.  In 1934 he spent four months playing theatres in London, Scotland and the provinces.  Back in the states again, he did motion picture work, appearing in "Sweet Music" with Rudy Vallee.  "Riding High" with Dorothy Lamour, ~"A Night in Tahiti" With Jinx Faulkenburg, and several Warner Brothers shorts.

In 1938 he organized his famous "Tito and his Accordion Swingtette" the pattern of which has been copied by so many other groups since.  At that time the swing accordion was considered "taboo" and Tito had a difficult time disproving this fact.  After many months of discouraging auditions he was on the verge of disbanding when he auditioned for Al Rinker of CBS who was quick to realize the merits of the group.  Mr. Rinker made an appointment for the following day to have the "King Of Jazz" Paul Whiteman, hear the group.  Whiteman listened to three numbers and immediately said, "You're on next week's Chesterfield Show as guest stars."  From then on the success of the group was assured and they made accordion history.

Then followed eight months at the Lincoln Hotel in New York, the Hollywood Trocadera and other leading hotels throughout the country.  In addition the group recorded for RCA Victor, appeared on many of Whiteman's shows on numerous programs including the Kate Smith, Rudy Valle and Benny Goodman shows.

One of the greatest thrills of Tito's life came in 1938 when Collier's magazine gave Paul Whiteman the opportunity to select an All American Swing Band, "The Super Colossal Swing Band of Our Time," which he did.  He placed Tito on the accordion berth, along with such musicians as the Dorsey Brothers, Louis Armstrong, Jack Tea garden, Art Tatum, Joe Venuti, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Gene Krupa and others.  To quote Paul Whiteman, "Tito is the only one I have ever heard who can successfully swing an accordion."

Just before the beginning of the War, Tito toured the army camps in the United States for five months.  In 1944 he was with a USO Show headed by Betty Hutton, which went to the battle areas in the Pacific including Saipan, Guam, and the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.

In the early part of 1945, prior to V.J. Day, he returned to the Pacific and Philippine Islands with a four-man unit starring Joe E. Brown.  This show, known as a "fox-hole unit" played only in forward combat areas for fighting Forces.

At the War's end, he again found himself in a USO show in the Pacific and his latter trip gave him an opportunity to see Japan and Korea.

Before the recent record ban, Tito recorded eight original compositions for Parlophone.  In this group of numbers are "Accordion Boogie", "Accordion Blues", "High Tension", "Atmosphere", "Fantasy Moderne", "Nightmare of a Termite", and "Opus for Squeezebox", all in the modern and descriptive vein.  In addition to the accordion the group's personnel included vibraharp, Bass, Guitar, and snares.  He's recently completed several new accordion solos, also in the modern vein, which are in process of being published by Mills Music Co. of New York City.  Tito is under contract to write for Mills and his ideas for composing include a fresh approach in writing for the accordion.  He tries to avoid as much as possible the ordinary run of the mill Polka, March, Overture and Um-Pa style of writing which is so prevalent with accordion transcriptions, and he believes he has achieved this goal to a great extent.

After all his extensive travel, Tito plans to make his home in Hollywood.  He is currently appearing at Sugie's Beverly Hills Tropics, dining place of the Movie Stars, which is near his home, and is doing sustain on NBC with Paul Martin and His Orchestra.  He's also preparing new material to record when and if the recording ban is lifted.