Tony Zamora (February 16, 1930-July 2, 2020)
Antonio “Tony” Zamora was born in Chicago where he graduated from DuSable High School. He moved to Champaign in the 1950s. A jazz saxophone player, he organized and led The Tony Zamora Jazz Ensemble, a musical group active in the 1970s and 1980s. The group featured Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet), Preston Jackson (guitar), Milton Knox (organ), and Maurice McKinley (percussion). Other musicians who performed with him were Ron Bridgewater, Ron Dewar, George Marsh, Glen Cronkite, Don Smith and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Mr. Zamora was also responsible for creating a program to provide free music lessons and instruments for children in the community at Douglass Community Center with donations from the locals American Federation of Musicians. He was the second Director of the University of Illinois’ African American Cultural Center. He established the Uhuru Ensemble, in the 1960s – comprised of musicians, students, faculty and members of the C-U community, performing music, dance and poetry. In 1973 he left the University of Illinois to become the Director of Purdue University’s Black Cultural Center.
Tony Zamora Biographical Information, Purdue University Library
“If you get hungry then you gotta play for money:” Local black jazz musicians famous and unnoticed. The Daily Illini, Wednesday, April 6, 1977, Spectrum 6.
Tony Zamora Jazz Ensemble Local Wiki page
Antonio “Tony” Zamora Obituary
Tony Zamora: Purdue’s Renaissance Man for 5 Decades
Longtime BCC Director Tony Zamora Dies at 90, The Exponent
Tony Zamora Jazz Ensemble Brings Old Time Jazz to Town, The Exponent