Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Monty Rex Budwig was born on December 26, 1926 in Pender, Nebraska and began playing bass while in high school. He continued after enlisting in the Air Force as a member of the military band.

In 1954 he moved to Los Angeles, California and went on to record and perform with Carmen McRae, Barney Kessel, Woody Herman, Red Norvo, Scott Hamilton, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Chet Baker, Bud Shank, Gary Burton, Frank Butler, Conte Candoli, Betty Carter, June Christy, Rosemary Clooney, Sonny Criss, Herb Ellis, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Stan Kenton, Junior Mance, Charles McPherson, Art Pepper, Shorty Rogers, Bola Sete and Sarah Vaughan, to name a few.

Monty spent a decade with Shelly Manne from 1957 to 1967 and recorded fifteen albums with him, including the live Blackhawk sessions. He is most notably known for his playing and recording with the Vince Guaraldi Trio tour in the1960’s along with drummer Don Joham, and on the seminal work Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus that contained the classic version of Cast Your Fate To The Wind. However, controversy surrounds whether it was bassist Fred Marshall or Budwig heard on the Charlie Brown Christmas Album.

His only release as a leader during his career is the recording Dig on the Concord label. Double bassist Monty Budwig, who mainly performed in the West Coast jazz genre, passed away on March 9, 1992 at the age of 65.

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Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1987

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charles “Don” Alias was born on December 25, 1939 in Harlem, New York City, the son of Caribbean immigrants. Absorbing the lessons of neighborhood Cuban and Puerto Rican hand drummers, while in high school he played conga with the Eartha Kitt Dance Foundation, and in 1957 accompanied the singer at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Mothballing his musical career to study biology at Erie, Pennsylvania’s Cannon College, he followed those studies with a stint at Boston’s Carnegie Institute for Biochemistry. While there Alias regularly moonlighted at local clubs in the company of students of the nearby Berklee School of Music, among them conguero Bill Fitch and bassist Gene Perla, and  played bass in a short-lived trio featuring Chick Corea on guitar and Tony Williams on drums.

When Perla landed a gig with Nina Simone, he convinced the singer to hire Alias to assume drumming duties. By the end of his three-year residency he was serving as musical director, and eventually captured the attention of Miles Davis, with whom Simone regularly shared festival bills. He would go on to record four albums with Miles Davis including sitting in to play the drums on the recording of Miles Runs the Voodoo Down on the album Bitches Brew in 1969,  when neither Lenny White nor Jack DeJohnette were able to play the marching band-inspired rhythm.

Settling back in New York City in the late Seventies he along with Gene Perla formed the Afro-Cuban fusion group Stone Alliance, which would be resurrected in 1980 with pianist Kenny Kirkland and tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer.  Performing on hundreds of recording sessions, he can be heard playing with Carla Bley, Uri Caine, Jack DeJohnette, Roberta Flack, Joe Farrell, Dan Fogelberg, Bill Frisell, Hal Galper, Kenny Garrett, Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones, Joe Lovano, David Sanborn, Philip Bailey, Joni Mitchell, Jaco Pastorius, Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, Lalo Schifrin, Nina Simone, Steve Swallow, the Brecker Brothers, James Taylor, Weather Report, Lou Reed, Blood Sweat & Tears, Pat Metheny, Don Grolnick Group and Jaco Pastorius, on the short list.

Percussionist Don Alias, best known for playing congas and other hand drums, but was also a capable drum kit performer,  passed away suddenly in his Manhattan home on March 29, 2006 in New York City.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Henry Coker was born December 24, 1919 in Dallas, Texas. He studied music at Wellesley College before making his professional debut with John White in 1935. From 1937 to 1939 he played with the Nat Towles territory band, then moved to Hawaii to play with Monk McFay.

Following Pearl Harbor, Coker settled in Los Angeles, California and played with Benny Carter from 1944 to 1946. He did a stint with Illinois Jacquet in 1945, then performed with Eddie Heywood between 1946 – 1947, and with Charles Mingus in the late ’40s.

Falling ill from 1949 to 1951 Henry played little, but after recovering he worked with Sonny Rollins and then joined Count Basie’s band, playing and recording with him from 1952 to 1963.

Working as a studio musician in the Sixties, he then toured with Ray Charles from 1966 to 1971. He did freelance and film/television studio work in the mid-1970s, rejoining Basie briefly in 1973 and Charles in 1976. Osie Johnson wrote a tribute to him entitled Cokernut Tree in 1955. Coker recorded on J.J. Johnson’s Trombones Incorporated session, featuring ten trombonists.

Trombonist Henry Coker passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 59 on November 23, 1979.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Kaori Yamada was born on December 23, 1971 in Takamatsu, Kagawa Pref., Japan. She started learning to play the piano at the age of 4 and graduated from the School of Music, at Takamatsu Junior College, majoring in classical piano. She began teaching herself to play drums on her own initiative at the age of 14 and was particularly interested in Soul, R&B and Jazz, the music her brother was listening to at the time. It was during this period that she developed a strong desire to become a professional drummer.

From 1991 to 1995, Kaori lived Hiroshima where she gave drum instruction under the R.C.C. Takeshi Inomata Drum School at Yamaha Music Shops. During this period, she volunteered in the community as a musician and performed at charity concerts and events for a local youth group and welfare facility.

Introduced to Japan’s best-known drummer, the late Motohiko Hino, in 1996 Yamada started to train with him and two years later she began her professional drumming career. Since that time she has performed with her bands “Wet” and “Petit Agasa”. She has also worked as a side person for Terumasa Hino, Fumio Karashima, Kosuke Mine and Yosuke Inoue, among other Japanese jazz musicians.

Moving to New York in 2007 she broadened her music horizons playing venues like Showman’s and Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola of Lincoln Center, and more. She plays with Carol Sudhalter, James Zollar, Nabuko Kiryu, Valery Ponomarev, Alvin Walker, Peter Brainin, Cecilia Coleman, Chris Haney, Marco Panascia, Robert Bowen, Steve Millhouse, Miki Hayama, Madame Pat Tandy, Vito Di Modugno, Radam Schwartz, Akiko Tsuruga, Satoshi Inoue, Kayo and more. In 1994 Kaori was awarded the Best Ensemble Award at the Yamaha Music Festival. Drummer Kaori Yamada continues to perform both as a leader and side person, but as yet has not led a recording session.

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