Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roosevelt “Baby Face” Willette was born on September 11, 1933 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His mother was a missionary who played the piano in the church where his father was a minister. His musical roots are therefore in gospel and Baby Face taught himself the piano and started out playing the piano for various gospel groups, and spent his early career touring across the United States, Canada and Cuba.
It was in Chicago that Willette decided to switch from gospel and rhythm & blues to playing jazz. He played piano with the bands of King Kolax, Joe Houston, Johnny Otis and Big Jay McNeely before switching to organ. He was inspired by Jimmy Smith’s work, however, his playing style remained heavily influenced by gospel and soul jazz. Based in Milwaukee he performed with his vocalist wife Jo Gibson at such clubs as The Flame Club, The Pelican, The Moonglow and Max’s among others.
In 1960 he moved to New York City where he met Lou Donaldson and Grant Green, and played on a few Blue Note sessions with them. This led to Willette being signed to the label, which recorded his debut album Face To Face. After stints in New York City, and then California, failing health forced a return to Chicago, where his family resided. This would eventually become his final resting place as he passed away on April 1,1971.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lorraine Feather was born Billie Lorraine Feather in Manhattan on September 10, 1948 to jazz writer Leonard and Jane, a big band singer. Named after her godmother Billie Holiday, she began using her middle name in grade school.
Lorraine began working in television as a lyricist in 1992 and has received seven Emmy nominations. Her lyrics for children include work for ABC, PBS, Disney and MGM films; with composer Mark Watters wrote for Jessye Norman’s 1996 Olympic performance, and with Larry Grossman composed for Julie Andrews.
Feather’s work has been heard on numerous records covered extensively by artists such as Phyllis Hyman, Kenny Rankin, Patti Austin, Diane Schuur and Cleo Laine. Many of her own solo projects have featured contemporary lyrics to formerly instrumental pieces written by Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and other pre-bop composers. Feather’s recordings have received glowing reviews in every major jazz magazine including Down Beat and Jazz Times.
Loraine has gone on to lyric theatrical work, musical and the American Opera Projects presented excerpts of her work. Her latest release, titled “Attachments” has her penning twelve new sets of lyrics with musicians such as Dave Grusin, Joey Calderazzo, Russell Ferrante, Shelly Berg and Eddie Arkin composing the music. She continues to write, record and perform.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Elvin Ray Jones was born on September 9, 1927 in Pontiac, Michigan. By age two he said he knew he held a fascination for drums watching the drummers in circus marching band parades go by his home. Elvin joined his high school’s black marching band, where he developed his rudimentary foundation. Upon discharge from the Army in 1949 he borrowed thirty-five dollars from his sister to buy his first drum set.
In Detroit, Jones played with Billy Mitchell’s house band at Detroit’s Grand River Street Club before moving to New York in 1955 where he worked as a sideman for Charles Mingus, Teddy Charles, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Wardell Gray and Miles Davis. By 1960 he was working with John Coltrane on his seminal work “A Love Supreme” and the relationship lasted until 1966.
Remaining active after leaving Coltrane, Elvin led several bands in the late sixties and seventies that are considered highly influential groups, notably a trio with saxophonist Joe Farrell and bassist Jimmy Garrison. He recorded extensively for Blue Note under his own name during this period with groups featuring prominent as well as up and coming greats like George Coleman, Lee Morgan, Frank Foster, Steve Grossman, Dave Liebman and Pepper Adams to name a few.
Elvin Jones’ sense of timing, polyrhythms, dynamics, timbre, and legato phrasing brought the drums to the foreground and his free-flowing style was a major influence on many leading rock drummers, including Mitch Mitchell and Ginger Baker. He performed and recorded with his own group, the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine, whose line up changed through the years, and recorded with both his brothers Hank and Thad over the course of his career.
He taught regularly, often taking part in clinics, playing in schools and giving free concerts in prisons. His lessons emphasized music history as well as drumming technique. Elvin Jones died of heart failure in Englewood, New Jersey on May 18, 2004.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wilbur Ware was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 8, 1923. He taught himself to play banjo and bass. In the 1940s, he worked with Stuff Smith, Sonny Stitt and Roy Eldridge. In the ‘50s, Ware played with Eddie Vinson, Art Blakey, Johnny Griffin and Buddy DeFranco.
Ware played simply, strongly, and melodically, with a big, hard-bop percussive sound. His best known for his hard bop percussive style and his most important Wilbur Ware records are three dates with the Thelonious Monk Quartet in 1957-58. The best Monk sides are the three perfect quartet tracks with John Coltrane and Shadow Wilson, followed by the uneven all-star “Monk’s Music” date, where one can hear Ware’s great harmonic insight on “Well You Needn’t”. These dates along with the Sonny Rollins Village Vanguard sets with Elvin Jones are examples of his finest recorded work.
Ware and fellow bassist Israel Crosby were leading examples of the more laid-back “Chicago Sound” approach to the bass during the 1950’s. By 1969, Ware had played with Clifford Jordan, Elvin Jones and Sonny Rollins. He later moved to Philadelphia, where the double-bassist died from emphysema on September 9,1979. He was 56 years old.
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