Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ford Leary was born on September 5, 1908 in Lockport, New York. He married early, had a son, and left both wife and child for a music career. During the thirties he performed as part of the Frank Trumbaur band and with the Bunny Berigan band, the latter being one of his better positions while scuffling to make ends meet freelancing in New York City.
Ford would go on to work with Larry Clinton in the late Thirties and in the early 1940s with Charlie Barnet, Mike Riley, and Muggsy Spanier. As he was readying to begin a new career path as a replacement performer in the Broadway show Follow The Girls, he suffered a back injury from which he never fully recovered.
His short career ended in the late ‘40s when trombonist and vocalist Ford Leary, the only trombonist of note to die institutionalized at Bellevue Hospital, passed away on June 4, 1949 at age 40.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jan Savitt was born Jacob Savetnick on September 4, 1907 in Shumsk, U.S.S.R. (now Ukraine) and reared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He exhibited musical ability at an early age and began winning conservatory scholarships in the study of the violin. He was offered the position of concertmaster in Leopold Stokowski’s Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, but turned it down, preferring to continue his studies at Curtis Institute. A year later, believing himself ready, he joined Stokowski and the association continued for seven years, during which time Savitt gained further laurels as a concert soloist and leader of a string quartet.
In 1938, Jan Savitt & His Top Hatters broadcast from 5–5:30 pm every Tuesday, thru Friday as the KYW staff orchestra at KYW/NBC in Philadelphia. Saturday’s weekly broadcast was one hour, coast-to-coast. The group also played at the Earl Theatre and performed with The Andrews Sisters and The Three Stooges.
He got his start in popular music sometime later as music director of KYW, Philadelphia, where he evolved the unique “shuffle rhythm” which remained his trademark. Numerous sustaining programs created such a demand for the “shuffle rhythm” that Savitt left KYW to form his own dance crew.
His band was notable for including George “Bon Bon” Tunnell,[3] one of the first Black singers to perform with a white band. Tunnell’s recording with Jan included Vol Vistu Gaily Star, co-composed by Slim Gaillard, and Rose of the Rio Grande. Helen Englert Blaum, known at the time as Helen Warren, also sang with him during the war years.
In the 1940s Savitt recorded short pieces used a filler before network shows for the National Broadcasting System’s Thesaurus series. Some of the pieces he created were I’m Afraid the Masquerade Is Over; If I Didn’t Care; Ring Dem Bells; and Romance Runs in the Family.
Violinist, bandleader and arranger Jan Savitt, known as “The Stokowski of Swing” from having played violin in Leopold Stokowski’s orchestra, passed away on October 4, 1948.
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Conversations About Jazz & Other Distractions
Conversations About Jazz Features
The Composers on September 3
Hammonds House Digital invites you to join us for Conversations about Jazz & Other Distractions hosted by former jazz radio host and founder of Notorious Jazz, Carl Anthony. Every other Thursday, Carl takes audiences on a unique journey through the world of jazz music with artist talks, workshops, and listening sessions.
On September 3 Conversations about Jazz delves into the subject of influential jazz composers. Carl’s guests for this program will be saxophonist, composer and educator Tia Fuller; trumpeter, composer and leader of the Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra Russell Gunn; and drummer, educator and activist Jaimeo Brown. They will discuss their own music, composers that have influenced them, leadership, making albums and more. This program is for the jazz novice and jazz head alike. The event is FREE, but you must register. To register click HERE.
Saxophonist Tia Fuller is an accomplished solo artist who has recorded five full-length projects with her quartet. Her most recent album, Diamond Cut, received a Grammy nomination in the Best Instrumental Jazz category. She is recognized as well-respected collaborator who has recorded and toured with numerous high-profile artists. She performed as part of the I AM… Sasha Fierce and Beyoncé Experience World Tour on stages across the globe; served as assistant musical director for Esperanza Spaulding’s Radio Music Society tour; and recorded and toured with Dianne Reeves for her Grammy-winning Beautiful Life album. Currently, Fuller is a faculty member at Berklee College of Music.
Trumpeter, composer and band leader Russell Gunn grew up listening to rap and hip hop. At the age of sixteen his dedication to the art of jazz took shape, although hip-hop has remained an influence on his work. Gunn has performed with numerous musicians including Wynton Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, Roy Hargrove, James Moody, and R&B hitmaker Maxwell. In 1999 Gunn released his first solo project, Ethnomusicology Vol. 1, which earned him a Grammy nomination. SmokinGunn followed a year later and, in 2001, Ethnomusicology Vol. 2. Since that time, Gunn has released two more volumes in his Ethnomusicology series. In 2007 the trumpeter paid homage to fellow St. Louis, IL, native and trumpet icon Miles Davis with Russell Gunn Plays Miles. More recently Gunn released Pyramids (2019) and Get It How You Live (2020) with his Afro-Futurist Jazz Big Band, The Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra.
Jaimeo Brown (pronounced jah-mayo) began his drum career at age 16 with his father bassist Dartanyan Brown, mother pianist and woodwind specialist, Marcia Miget, and drum teacher, Sly Randolph. In the last 20 years, Brown has worked with musicians including Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Q-Tip, Carl Craig, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Locke, David Murray, and others. He gained experience performing and educating audiences around the world as an ambassador for the US State Department. In addition to performing, Jaimeo contributed material for the Oscar and Grammy award winning documentary ’20 Feet from Stardom’ and PBS production of Ralph Ellison’s ‘King of the Bingo Game.’ As the Director of Transcending Arts Jaimeo is a passionate educator, working in community service in NJ and NY by giving lessons to kids through programs such as NJPAC and New City Kids.
Hammonds House Museum is generously supported by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Fulton County Arts and Culture, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, AT&T and WarnerMedia.
Hammonds House Museum’s mission is to celebrate and share the cultural diversity and important legacy of artists of African descent. The museum is the former residence of the late Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds, a prominent Atlanta physician and a passionate arts patron. A 501(c)3 organization which opened in 1988, Hammonds House Museum boasts a permanent collection of more than 450 works including art by Romare Bearden, Robert S. Duncanson, Benny Andrews, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Hale Woodruff, Amalia Amaki, Radcliffe Bailey and Kojo Griffin. In addition to featuring art from their collection, the museum offers new exhibitions, artist talks, workshops, concerts, poetry readings, arts education programs, and other cultural events throughout the year.
Located in a beautiful Victorian home in Atlanta’s historic West End, Hammonds House Museum is a cultural treasure and a unique venue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they continue to observe CDC guidelines, but look forward to welcoming in-person visitors soon! For more information about upcoming virtual events, and to see how you can support their mission, visit their website: hammondshouse.org.MEDIA: For more information, contact Karen Hatchett at Hatchett PR, karen@hatchettpr.com.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Idle Moments by guitarist Grant Green is this week’s jazz album that the quarantined jazz voyager has chosen to spotlight. It was recorded on November 4 and 15, 1963 at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, however, it wasn’t released until February 1965 on the Blue Note Records label.
The album was produced by Alfred Lion and is best known for the title piece, a slow composition in C minor which lasts for nearly 15 minutes. Pearson, who wrote the song, explains in his liner notes to the album that the tune was meant to be much shorter. Due to the musicians repeating the main melody twice, however, there was some confusion as to whether or not one chorus would consist of 16 or 32 measures.
Track Listing | 42:45
- Idle Moments (Pearson) ~ 14:56
- Jean De Fleur (Green) ~ 6:49
- Django (John Lewis) ~ 8:44
- Nomad (Pearson) ~ 12:16
Personnel
- Grant Green – guitar
- Joe Henderson – tenor saxophone
- Duke Pearson – piano
- Bobby Hutcherson – vibraphone
- Bob Cranshaw – double bass
- Al Harewood – drums
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mickey Roker was born Granville William Roker on September 3, 1932 in Miami, Florida into extreme poverty. After his mother died when he was ten, he was taken by his grandmother to live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his uncle Walter. He gave the young boy his first drum kit, communicated his love of jazz, and introduced him to the Philadelphia jazz scene, where drummer Philly Joe Jones became his idol.
In the early 1950s, he started gaining recognition as a sensitive yet hard-driving big-band drummer. Favored by Dizzy Gillespie, he was soon in demand for his supportive skills in both big-band and small-group settings. While in Philadelphia he played with Jimmy Oliver, Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Divine, King James, and Sam Reed before moving to New York in 1959. Once there his first gigs were with Gigi Gryce, Ray Bryant, Joe Williams, Junior Mance, Nancy Wilson, and the Duke Pearson big band. In 1992, he replaced Connie Kay in the Modern Jazz Quartet.
He recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Duke Pearson, Tommy Flanagan, Ella Fitzgerald, Zoot Sims, Horace Silver, Junior Mance, Sarah Vaughan, Milt Jackson, Herbie Hancock, Phil Woods, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Bucky Pizzarelli, Stanley Turrentine, Lee Morgan, Roy Ayers, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Hank Jones, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Locke, and numerousother jazz musicians.
Drummer Mickey Roker Roker, who remained active on the Philadelphia music scene well into the 21st century, passed away on May 22, 2017 at the age of 84.
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