Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Claude Thornhill was born on August 10, 1909 in Terre Haute, Indiana and as a youth was recognized as an extraordinary piano talent and along with clarinet and trumpet prodigy Danny Polo, formed a traveling duo. While a student at Garfield High School he played with several theater bands before entering the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at age sixteen.

He and clarinetist Artie Shaw started their careers together at the Golden Pheasant in Cleveland, Ohio playing in the Austin Wiley Orchestra. By 1931 they were in New York City and in 1935 he was playing on sessions with Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Ray Noble, Billie Holiday and arranged Loch Lomond and Annie Laurie for Maxine Sullivan.

Later in the decade he moved out to the West Coast with the Bob Hope Radio Show and arranged for Judy Garland in Babes in Arms. In 1939 he founded the Claude Thornhill Orchestra with his old friend Danny Polo was his lead clarinetist. Although the band was a sophisticated dance band, it became known for its superior jazz musicians and for his and Gil Evans’s arrangements.

Encouraging the musicians to develop cool-sounding tones, the band played without vibrato. The band was popular with both musicians and the public and Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool nonet was modeled in part on Thornhill’s sound and unconventional instrumentation. The band’s most successful records were Snowfall, A Sunday Kind of Love, and Love for Love.

1942 saw him enlisting in the Navy and playing across the Pacific Theater with Jackie Cooper as his drummer and Dennis Day as his vocalist. After his discharge in ‘46 he reunited his ensemble and Danny Polo, Gerry Mulligan and Barry Galbraith returned with new members, Red Rodney, Lee Konitz, Joe Shulman, and Bill Barber. For a brief time in the mid 1950s, Claude was briefly Tony Bennett’s musical director.

Pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader Claude Thornhill passed away on July 1, 1965. A large portion of his extensive library of music is currently held by Drury University in Springfield, Missouri and in 1984 he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Butch Warren was born Edward Warren on August 9, 1939 in Washington, D.C. and began playing professionally at age 14 in a local Washington, D. C. band led by his father, Edward Warren. He later worked with other local groups, including Stuff Smith as well as with altoist and bandleader Rick Henderson at the historic Howard Theatre on 7th and T Streets.

Moving to New York City in 1958 Butch played first with Kenny Dorham and appeared on his first recording in 1960 along with saxophonist Charles Davis, pianist Tommy Flanagan and drummer Buddy Enlow. During his stay in New York City he became house bassist for Blue Note Records.

As a sideman, he recorded with Miles Davis, Hank Mobley, Donald Byrd, Sonny Clark, Dexter Gordon, Elmo Hope, Grant Green, Slide Hampton, Booker Ervin, Walter Bishop Jr. Horace Parlan, Bobby Timmons, Don Wilkerson, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Jackie McLean, and Stanley Turrentine. He played with Thelonious Monk in 1963 and 1964 before moving back to Washington, D.C.

Back home he briefly worked in television before becoming seriously ill. Following the onset of his illness he played professionally only occasionally, including a regular gig at the jazz club Columbia Station in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Bassist Butch Warren, whose solos were inventive and played in the hard bop genre, passed away October 5, 2013.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Frank Traynor was born on August 8, 1927 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He formed his first band, the Black Bottom Stompers, in 1949 and in 1951 he joined the Len Barnard Band. That same year he was voted best trombonist in the Make Way for the Bands poll and made his first recordings with this band.

Traynor became a regular feature at Athol’s Abbey, an underground bar and grill on the corner of St Kilda Road and Park Street. In 1963, Traynor recorded an EP with Judith Durham titled, Judy Durham. Frank and his band the Jazz Preachers were also a feature of the Melbourne City Council’s – Free Entertainment in the Parks.

Founding the Melbourne Jazz Club in 1958, and not limiting his entrepreneurial skills to just jazz he also established and ran the Frank Traynor’s Folk and Jazz Club from 1963–75, which played a central role in the Australian folk revival.

Trombonist Frank Traynor led Australia’s longest continuously running jazz band, the Jazz Preachers, from 1956 until he was diagnosed with leukaemia and passed away on February 22, 1985 in Melbourne.

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Jerry Tachoir was born August 7, 1955 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. A chance meeting with Gary Burton led to him matriculating through Berklee College of Music, studying with Burton and graduating summa cum laude in 1976.

Tachoir has been nominated for a Grammy, released several albums with his band, the Group Tachoir, and as an educator he has taught privately for over a quarter of a century, held clinics and master classes and authored  A Contemporary Mallet Method: An Approach to the Vibraphone and Marimba,

He has released an instructional vibraphone video titled Master Study Series and the Vibraphone Vol. I and II. Vibraphone and marimba player Jerry Tachoir has led his quartet for twenty-five years throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, and continues to compose, record and tour.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Abbey Lincoln was born Anna Marie Wooldridge on August 6, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Calvin Center, Cass County, Michigan. One of many singers influenced by Billie Holiday, her 1956 album debut, Abbey Lincoln’s Affair – A Story of a Girl in Love, was followed by a series of albums for Riverside Records.

1956 saw lincoln’s first foray into acting in which she appeared in The Girl Can’t Help It, interpreting the theme song and working with Benny Carter. She would go on to be featured in movies and television shows like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Nothing But a Man, The Name of the Game, Mission: Impossible, Short Walk to Daylight, Marcus Welby, M.D., All in the Family, Mo’ Better Blues and For Love of Ivy, in which she received a Golden Globe nomination. Her song For All We Know is featured in the 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy.

Never straying far from music or the struggle for equality, in 1960 she sang on Max Roach’s landmark civil rights-themed recording, We Insist! Her lyrics often reflected the ideals of the civil rights movement and helped in generating passion for the cause in the minds of her listeners. She explored more philosophical themes during the later years of her songwriting career and remained professionally active until well into her seventies.

During the 1980s, Abbey’s catalogue of creative output was smaller and she released only a few albums. During the 1990s and until her death, however, she fulfilled a 10-album contract with Verve Records. These albums are highly regarded and represent a crowning achievement in Lincoln’s career. Devil’s Got Your Tongue (1992) featured Rodney Kendrick, Grady Tate, J. J. Johnson, Stanley Turrentine, Babatunde Olatunji and The Staple Singers, among others.

Vocalist, activist, songwriter, composer and actress Abbey Lincoln passed away eight days after her 80th birthday on August 14, 2010 in a Manhattan nursing home after suffering deteriorating health ever since undergoing open-heart surgery in 2007. She left a small but vital catalogue to the jazz canon.

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