Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Marsala was born on January 4, 1907 in Chicago, Illinois and learned to play the clarinet as a youth. He became professionally active during the big band era but he was far more adventurous than his fellow “dixielanders” owing much of his rich and graceful playing to Jimmy Noone.
Marsala led his groups “His Chosen Seven” and “His Delta Four” and was one of the first leaders to employ drummer Buddy Rich. Over the course of his career he played with a host of musicians such as Joe Buskin, Jack Lemaire, Carmen Mastren and Etta James among others.
Marsala also was at the forefront of helping to break down race segregation in jazz working with Dizzy Gillespie and others in the 1940s. However, as the bebop era came into full swing, Joe experienced difficult times finding work playing or recording, as clarinetists were less in demand.
Adjusting to this phenomenon Marsala began composing and writing songs for what is now referred to as classic pop. We wrote primarily for Frank Sinatra and Patti Page with songs like “Don’t Cry, Joe” and “And So To Sleep Again”.
Joe Marsala suffered from chronic colitis and he died on March 4, 1978 in Santa Barbara, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Isao Suzuki was born on January 3, 1933 in Tokyo, Japan. It wasn’t until college that he asked his mother to buy him a double bass after being moved to tears by the playing of Milt Hinton in concert. His ability to read music allowed him to quickly become proficient enough to land his first job in a strip joint, where it was common practice to hire jazz musicians in the Fifties.
He would join guitarist Tony Tekiseira group a G.I. stationed in Tokyo and over four years he gained confidence learning from the American musicians. By 1960 Isao was playing with George Kwaguchi and Big Four, with special guest Sadao Watanabe, with clarinetist Tony Scott’s band that evolve into the Hidehiko Matsumoto Quartet. The group would play the first world jazz festival in 1964 and Isao would meet Miles Davis, Wynton Kelly but most importantly bassist Paul Chambers.
1966 saw him working with the Sadao Watanabe quartet, then he became a band leader of a house band at Five Spot backing or playing with musicians such as Oscar Peterson, Horace Silver, Winton Kelly and Art Blakey. in 1970 he went to New York and officially joined his Jazz Messengers. Over the next year Suzuki worked and recorded with Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Ella Fitzgerald, Wynton Kelly, Bobby Timmons, Jim Hall, Ron Carter, Sun Ra and others.
Returning to Japan, he performed and recorded with guitarist Baden Powell, continued playing and recording and became a grand master of jazz. Isao Suzuki is more than a bassist but a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer and bandleader. He continues to contribute to the development of many young musicians enlisting them as members of his band Oma Sound, a practice that has kept his sound on the cutting-edge of progressive jazz to this day.
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Jazz In Film
The Out-Of-Towners is a 1969 film directed by Arthur Hiller and it starred Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis. Quincy Jones composed the music score.
Up for a promotion, George Kellerman with wife Gwen are being flown to New York City on an all expenses paid trip to interview with the top brass. They plan to arrive the night before to enjoy dinner and a show but the plane gets diverted to Boston. George’s carefully planned dream trip turns into a nightmare which features, among other misadventures, a hellish train ride to New York, a mugging, a police chase and a broken tooth.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Henry Goodwin was born on January 2, 1910 in Washington, D.C. and as a child played drums and tuba in addition to the trumpet. Henry worked with the bands of Sam Taylor and Claude Hopkins in 1925 as a teenager. At age 15, Goodwin went to Europe with Hopkins as part of the Josephine Baker Revue but in Berlin he decided to return to New York.
He soon sailed to Argentina with a group led by Paul Wyer and after his return to New York, Goodwin worked with Elmer Snowden and recorded with Cliff Jackson’s Krazy Kats. Leaving for Europe again in 1933 with Lucky Millinder, then back to New York playing with Willie Bryant, only to settle in with Charlie Johnson for two years.
Henry worked a short stint with Cab Calloway but by 1937 was playing with Edgar Hayes for three years. Hired by Sidney Bechet he was more at home with his style, and then went on to work with Cecil Scott, Gene Sedric and Art Hodes. Freelancing for a while he went back to Europe to play the Nice Jazz Festival with Mezz Mezzrow, and by the mid 50s was playing in San Francisco with Earl Hines.
He played in a variety of Dixieland bands in the 1960’s before retiring and never led his own record date. Trumpeter Henry Goodwin passed away on July 2, 1979.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chris Potter was born on born January 1, 1971 in Chicago, Illinois but grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. His prodigy for music appeared early and he mastered several instruments including guitar and piano but gravitated toward the saxophone.
Playing his first professional jazz gig at age 13, Chris quickly developed a devoted local following. He attended college in New York City, first at the New School and then the Manhattan School of Music.
He has released more than a dozen albums as leader and has garnered top ten jazz CD honors from both Jazziz and Slate magazines and the New York Times. He has an equally impressive catalogue as a sideman having performed and recorded with many leading musicians including Patricia Barber, Kenny Werner, Marian McPartland, Red Rodney, Paul Motian, Adam Rogers, the Mingus Big Band, Ray Brown, Dave Holland, James Moody and Joanne Brackeen to name just a few.
Chris Potter, alto and tenor saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist and composer continues to perform, tour and record.
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