Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lauderic Rex Caton was born on August 31, 1910 in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, the fourth son and last among the eight children of Robert Caton, who was of Saint Lucian descent, and Margaret Caton. An autodidact on guitar, he was also proficient on saxophone, double bass, and banjo, and began playing professionally at the age of 17.
After spending time in Guadeloupe and Martinique, he moved to Europe in 1938, playing in Paris with Martinican musician Oscar Alemán. He then moved to Brussels and played with Ram Ramirez, Jean Omer, Harry Pohl, and Jamaican Joe Smith. While in Antwerp, Caton played with Gus Clark and Tommy Brookins.
Influenced by Lonnie Johnson and Charlie Christian, he began amplifying his guitar in 1940. Lauderic played in England with Don Marino Barreto and during his tenure met and befriended saxophonist Louis Stephenson, who became a frequent collaborator. He led a house band at Jig’s Club working with Cyril Blake, Johnny Claes, Bertie King, Harry Parry, Dick Katz, and Coleridge Goode. By the 1940s he played with Ray Ellington and Ray Nance, playing under the pseudonym Lawrence Rix for legal reasons.
Guitarist Lauderic Caton went on to teach and build custom amplifiers. He passed away in London, England on February 19, 1999 at age 88 and was interred in Port Of Spain, Trinidad.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Conny Jackel was born Horst Konrad Jackel on August 30, 1931 in Offenbach am Main, Germany. He first worked as a steel fitter, then in 1951 he played at the conservatory and in the clubs of the US Army in France, the Netherlands and Germany in 1952. In 1955 he became a member of Helmut Brandt Combo, contributing to their success.
By 1959 Jackel had joined the Harald Banter Band in Cologne playing demanding arrangements for two years. In 1961 he joined the orchestra of Erwin Lehn in Stuttgart, where he also worked with Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Sinatra on stage.
From 1964 to 1969 he was a member of the Albert Mangelsdorff led Jazz Ensemble of Hessischer Rundfunk . From 1967 Conny played first trumpet in the Dance Orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk under Willy Berking and the HR Big Band headed by Heinz Schönberger . In addition, he performed with Joki Friendand, Rudi Sehring, Attila Zoller and Charly Antolini. He recorded with Gustl Mayers Swing All Stars and the trio of Manfred Kullmann . Then he was a member of the jazz band Hanauer Sugarfoot Stompers and played with other traditional bands of the region such as the Phoenix Jazz Band.
In 1999 a bout with cancer caused Jackel to have his lower jaw removed forcing him to give up playing trumpet. Occasionally he would play drums as also in the Book Readers active as a drummer. For his contributions to jazz, he was inducted into the Knights of Ronneburg on September 9, 2006.
Trumpeter and flugelhornist Conny Jackel passed away after a long illness and the consequences of an operation on April 28, 2008 in Bad Nauheim, Germany.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bennie Maupin was born August 29, 1940 in Detroit, Michigan. He started playing tenor saxophone in high school and attended the Detroit Institute for Musical Arts, while playing locally. He moved to New York in 1963, freelancing with many groups, including ones led by Marion Brown and Pharoah Sanders.
Well known for his playing as a part of Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi sextet and Headhunters band and for performing on Miles Davis’s seminal fusion record, Bitches Brew. Maupin has collaborated with Horace Silver, Roy Haynes, Woody Shaw, Lee Morgan and many others. He has also performed on several Meat Beat Manifesto albums.
Noted for having a harmonically-advanced, “out” improvisation style, while having a different sense of melodic direction than other “out” jazz musicians such as Eric Dolphy.
Maupin was also a member of Almanac, a group with bassist Cecil McBee, pianist Mike Nock and drummer Eddie Marshall. He has recorded a half dozen albums as a leader and another three dozen as a sideman with John Beasley, Marion Brown, Mike Clark, Miles Davis, Jack DeJohnette, Eddie Henderson, Andrew Hill, Darek Oles, Lonnie Smith, McCoy Tyner, Lenny White, Patrick Gleeson and Jim Lang.
Multireedist Bennie Maupin, who plays various saxophones, flute and bass clarinet, failed to catch on as a bandleader, thus maintained a low profile during the past 15 years, until emerging in 2006 with the critically acclaimed Penumbra followed two years later Early Reflections on the Cryptogramophone label, then on Vocalion with Slow Traffic To The Left, Moonscapes. He continues to perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anthony Branker was born August 28, 1958 in Elizabeth, New Jersey and raised in Piscataway and Plainfield, New Jersey. He attended the music program and graduated from Piscataway High School, then went on to Princeton University for his B.A. in Music, the University of Miami for a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy and finally to Columbia University, Teachers College receiving degrees of Master of Education and Doctor of Education; with specialties in Music and Music Education.
Hailing from Trinidad and Barbados heritage his family boasts a musical director and pianist with the Platters, a composer and pianist who worked with the Copasetics and Billy Strayhorn, and a music producer and bassist who has worked with Roberta Flack, Cyndi Lauper, Simply Red and others.
His lists of fellowships, commissions, compositions and collaborations while at Princeton University are extensive. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and has conducted symphonies, orchestras and ensembles all over the world. Branker has performed and recorded with the Spirit of Life Ensemble and has shared the stage in a variety of musical settings with such artists as Ted Curson, Talib Kibwe, Guilherme Franco & Nova Bossa Nova, Steve Nelson, Marcus Belgrave, Billy Higgins, John Hicks, Michael Cochrane, Calvin Hill, Bobby Watson, Jacky Terrasson, Steve Nelson, Bob Mintzer, Don Braden, Ralph Peterson Jr.,Orrin Evans, Antonio Hart, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Jon Faddis, Ted Curson, Oliver Lake, Frank Foster, Benny Carter, Conrad Herwig, Eddie Henderson, James Weidman, Stanley Jordan, Benny Carter, Ralph Peterson, Terence Blanchard, Big John Patton, Roscoe Mitchell, Gary Burton,among numerous others, and has performed in the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Dinah Was: The Dinah Washington Musical.
As an educator Anthony recently retired from Princeton University after 27 years on the faculty and the endowed chair in jazz studies, serving as founding director of the Program in Jazz Studies, director of university jazz ensembles program, and associate director of the Program in Musical Performance.
In 1999 with medical problems stemming from two brain aneurysms and the discovery of an arteriovenous malformation caused trumpeter, composer, educator, scholar, and conductor Anthony Branker to give up trumpet playing and to take a leave of absence from teaching.
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Jack Delaney was born on August 27, 1930 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He studied at Southeastern Louisiana College and worked the late 1940s and early 1950s in New Orleans with Johnny Reininger, Sharkey Bonano and Tony Almerico.
Recordings were mainly mid-1950s with Almericos Parisian Room band with singer Lizzie Miles. Around this time he put together a group with Ken Colyer and Pete Fountain. From 1958 he worked at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans with Leon Kellner, later with Pete Fountain. His jazz career primarily spanned from 1950-1977 and he recorded 52 sessions.
Dixieland trombonist Jack Delaney, who also played the trumpet and sang, passed away on September 22, 1975.
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