Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Luckey Roberts was born Charles Luckyth Roberts on August 7, 1887 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was playing piano and acting professionally with traveling Negro minstrel shows in his childhood. Settling in New York City about 1910 he became one of the leading pianists in Harlem, and started publishing some of his original rags.

Roberts toured France and the UK with James Reese Europe during World War I, then returned to New York where he wrote music for various shows and recorded piano rolls. With James P. Johnson, he developed the stride piano style of playing about 1919.

His reach on the keyboard was unusually large and Luckey could reach a fourteenth, leading to a rumor that he had the webbing between his fingers surgically cut. Those who knew him and saw him play live denounced it as false, he simply had naturally large hands with a wide finger spread.

By the 1920s Roberts teamed up with lyricist Alex C. Rogers, co-wrote three Broadway musicals, Go-Go and Sharlee in 1923, and My Magnolia in 1926, the latter starred Adelaide Hall, a major black revue star.

An astute businessman, he became a millionaire twice through real estate dealings. Pianist and composer Luckey Roberts, who recorded piano solos with Willie “the Lion “ Smith, passed away on February 5, 1968 in New York City.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Eddie Lee McFadden was born on August 6, 1928 in Baltimore, Maryland and as a small child tried the piano but later settled on guitar. After his military service, he concentrated on jazz guitar. By the 1950s the guitarist was playing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania clubs. From 1957-58 he was in organist Jimmy Smith’s band and recorded a dozen albums with Smith as part of a trio and sextet. The trio included Donald Bailey on drums.

Staying with organists he next joined Johnny “Hammond” Smith and during the period 1960–63 and one more in 1966, McFadden made eight recordings. Two further sideman appearances on albums came to fruition in the late 1970s.

In November 1967, the Al Grey & Eddie McFadden Quartet played at Count Basie’s Lounge in New York. During the late Seventies he recorded with Sonny Phillips and Don Patterson.

Guitarist Eddie McFadden, who also wrote music for some of his bands, passed away on September 23, 1992 in Philadelphia.

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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

CHET BAKER PLAYS THE BEST OF LERNER & LOEWE

The fat lady has not received her phone call to even begin warming up as the country races back to the way things were more than a year ago. It took three years to get past the Spanish Flu pandemic a hundred years ago because people didn’t want to adhere to the systems put in place. The Delta variant is here with a vengeance causing 21+ thousand new cases here in Florida this past weekend and the numbers are still being counted. I’ve had friends exposed to this variant with fortunate test results clearing them. I am socially distancing when out, wearing my mask and quarantining myself at home. I hope you are doing the same.

This week’s pick is the 1959 album Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe. The trumpeter features show tunes by the composer and lyricist, and was released on the Riverside label. The recording sessions were produced by Orrin Keepnews at the Reeves Sound Studios in New York City. Tracks 2,6,7,8 were recorded on July 21st and 1,3,4,5 took place on July 22, 1959.

Track Listing | 43:02

1. I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face ~ 4:16
2. I Could Have Danced All Night ~ 3:43
3. The Heather on the Hill ~ 5:04
4. On the Street Where You Live ~ 8:37
5. Almost Like Being in Love ~ 4:53
6. Thank Heaven for Little Girls ~ 4:35
7. I Talk to the Trees ~ 5:51
8. Show Me ~ 6:30

Personnel 

• Chet Baker ~ trumpet
• Herbie Mann ~ flute, tenor saxophone
• Zoot Sims ~ tenor saxophone, alto saxophone
• Pepper Adams ~ baritone saxophone
• Bob Corwin (tracks 1 & 3-5), Bill Evans (tracks 2 & 6-8) ~ piano
• Earl May ~ bass
• Clifford Jarvis ~ drums

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Otto Lington was born on August 5, 1903 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The son of a clown, he showed an early interest in music and got his first professional arrangement as a musician at 14 years old. During the 1920s and 1930s he led his own orchestras and held jobs as a leader of orchestras, such as Kai Ewans in Denmark , Jack Harris in Sweden and Bernard Etté in Germany.

He was one of the pioneers of jazz in Denmark and was nicknamed The White Negro. In 1929, Otto performed the first major jazz concert in Denmark, where, among other things, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue was performed.

For many years during 1951 ~ 1952 and 1958 ~ 1972 Lington led the orchestra at the Tivoli in Copenhagen, but also at many theaters, revue establishments and the like.

Violinist., composer, music publisher and bandleader Otto Lington, was a pioneer of jazz in Denmark, passed away on December 15, 1992 and interred at Søndermark Cemetery in Frederiksberg, Denmark.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Earl Bowman Swope was born on August 4, 1922 in Hagerstown, Maryland into a musical family: his parents, a sister and two brothers were all musicians. When he was 20, he played with Sonny Dunham.

During the Forties, from 1943~47 he played with Boyd Raeburn, Georgie Auld, and Buddy Rich. Then, from 1947 to 1949 he worked with Woody Herman and recorded in small groups with Stan Getz and Serge Chaloff. The Fifties began with Earl working with Elliot Lawrence, then worked freelance in New York and Washington, D.C.

Later in the 1950s he returned to big band work, playing with Jimmy Dorsey and Louie Bellson. Residing in Washington, D.C. in the 1960s he played locally until his death. Trombonist Earl Swope, whose style was not influenced by J. J. Johnson and played in a modern barrelhouse style,  passed away on January 3, 1968.

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