Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marion Montgomery was born Marian Maud Runnells on November 17, 1934 in Natchez, Mississippi. She began her career in Atlanta, Georgia working clubs before moving on to Chicago, Illinois where singer Peggy Lee heard her on an audition tape and suggested she should be signed by Capitol Records. From the early to mid-1960 she released three albums for the label. During this early part of her career, she became Marian Montgomery, having previously gone by the nickname of Pepe, and eventually changing her name to Marion.
In 1965, she came to Britain to play a season with John Dankworth and met and married English pianist and musical director Laurie Holloway, thus beginning a long and productive association in which they both became very well known to British audiences. In the Seventies she became the resident singer on the British chat show hosted by Michael Parkinson.
By the 1980s she collaborated a series of concerts and albums with composer and conductor Richard Rodney Bennett. Her recording of the song Maybe the Morning was used by Radio Luxembourg to close out each evening broadcast, and when the station closed its doors.
Her final studio recording was That Lady from Natchez, released in 1999 and continued to perform including a sold-out three weeks at London’s Pizza on the Park two months before her death. Never categorizing herself purely as a jazz singer, rather simply as a singer of various styles who left the world a catalogue of two-dozen albums, vocalist Marion Montgomery passed away on July 22, 2002 in Bray, Berkshire, England after a ten-year battle with lung cancer.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ben Thigpen was born Benjamin F. Thigpen on November 16, 1908 in Laurel, Mississippi. He played piano as a child and was trained by his sister Eva. He played in South Bend, Indiana with Bobby Boswell in the 1920s before moving to Chicago, Illinois to study under Jimmy Bertrand.
Chicago saw Ben playing with many noted Chicago bandleaders and performers, including Doc Cheatham. He played with Charlie Elgar’s Creole Band from 1927 to 1929 but never recorded with them. Following this he spent time in Cleveland, Ohio with J. Frank Terry, and then became the drummer for Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy, where he stayed from 1930 to 1947.
Much of his work is available on collections highlighting the piano work of Mary Lou Williams, who also played in this ensemble. After his time performing and recording with Kirk, his career was not well documented and it appears that he never recorded as a leader. He did however, lead his own quintet in St. Louis, Missouri, recorded with Mary Lou Williams, Booker Collins and Ted Robinson and also recorded Dixieland with Singleton Palmer in the 1960s.
Drummer Ben Thigpen, father of Ed Thigpen, who followed in his footsteps, passed away on October 5, 1971.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gary Potter was born on November 15, 1965, Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Taking up guitar in his youth, he was playing in country music bands at the age of 12. He had a spell in the USA, drawing approving attention in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Drawing inspiration from early rock ‘n’ roll before becoming interested in jazz, Gary especially admired and influenced by the playing of Django Reinhardt. He has had numerous outspoken admirers of his playing including fellow guitarists Chet Atkins and George Harrison.
By the early 1990s, Potter became best known for his jazz work and in 1994 came second in the guitar section of the British Jazz Awards. He also appeared in the television documentary, The Django Legacy, worked with guitarist Nils Solberg, bass player Andy Crowdy and violinist Christian Garrick. In addition to performing, guitarist Gary Potter composes, arranges and records, while also teaching internationally.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. was born on November 14, 1934 in New Orleans, Louisiana and started out as a tenor saxophonist but switched to the piano while in high school. From his first professional performance with The Groovy Boys over fifty years ago, he has been a major influence in jazz. At that time, he was one of the few New Orleans musicians who did not specialize in Dixieland or rhythm and blues.
He played with fellow modernists including Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, and Al Hirt, becoming one of the most respected pianists in jazz. Ellise has recorded some twenty albums as a leader opting to shun the spotlight and taking a sideman seat recording and performing with David “Fathead” Newman, Eddie Harris, Marcus Roberts, Reginald Veal, Robert Hurst, Herlin Riley, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Reed, Billy Higgins, Ray Brown, Benjamin Wolfe, Cynthia Liggins Thomas, Roland Guerin and Courtney Pine to name a few.
Focusing on teaching, Marsalis’s didactic approach, combined with an interest in philosophy, he encourages his students to make discoveries in music on their own, through experiment and very careful listening. He is a leading educator at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, the University of New Orleans, and Xavier University of Louisiana, and has influenced the careers of Terence Blanchard, Harry Connick Jr., Nicholas Payton; as well as his sons: Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason.
Ellis has received an honorary doctorate from Tulane University, was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and has had the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music at Musicians’ Village in New Orleans named in his honor.
He has recorded with his family the live album titled Music Redeems, he and his sons are group recipients of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award, and has been named Sinfonia’s 24th Man of Music. Pianist and educator Ellis Marsalis continues to perform, record and educate.
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Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1981
We continue our journey down the jazz highway and the year is 1981. The city is poised once again to bring a great lineup to the Atlanta Jazz Festival from August 31st to September 4th in Central City Park and September 5th – 7th in Piedmont Park. The mainstays are back – Clark College Jazz Orchestra, Ojeda Penn Experience Carol Veto, Joe Jennings’ Life Force holding down the local talent with new arrivals Rod Smith, Dub Hudson.
Shirley Cooks continued to be at the helm of the Department of Cultural Affairs with Mark Johnson programming to bring a star-studded lineup with Betty Carter, Max Roach, The Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Quartet, World Saxophone Quartet, Billy McPherson, Chubby Stevens, Villi Lakatos, Pat Foster, and the Bob Shaw Quartet.
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