Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Shirley Crabbe was born on February 18, 1963 in New York City, New York. As a teenager she wanted to sing jazz after being inspired by a performance of Ella Fitzgerald singing the song A Tisket, A Tasket in an old Abbott and Costello movie. She pursued her dreams first to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where she earned a Bachelor of Music, then returned home to study Voice at the Manhattan School of Music. During this period of study by day she traveled downtown to sing jazz in the clubs.

She has performed at festivals, jazz clubs and concert series in New York City and its surrounding area. She has appeared at some of Harlem’s best jazz rooms such as Minton’s and the Lenox Lounge, as well as the 2019 Berks Jazz Fest, Zinc Bar,  Metropolitan Room and Birdland. Crabbe has opened for Abby Lincoln, recorded with Houston Person, and has performed with Harold Mabern, Jamil Nasser, Donald Vega, David Budway, Ron Blake, David Glasser, Brandon Lee, Matt Haviland, Cameron Brown, Jon Burr, Jim West, among others.

In 2011 Shirley released her debut album Home which remained on the Jazz Week Album Chart for 26 weeks. Her sophomore project Bridges hit the Jazz Week album chart Top 50 albums. She has been the recipient of several honors and awards.

Vocalist Shirley Crabbe, who won the New York Bistro Award Winner for Outstanding Recording: Bridges in 2019, continues to performa nd record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ronald “Ronnie” Zito was born on February 17, 1939) in Utica, New York, into a musical family including his pianist brother Torrie Zito. He began playing drums at the age of 10 and at age 14 took a year and a half of formal lessons.

He has played with Woody Herman, J.R. Monterose, Frank Rosolino, Peggy Lee, Cher, Roberta Flack and Eartha Kitt. Zito was Bobby Darin’s personal drummer for four years.

Ronnie has recorded with David Pomeranz, Barry Manilow, Irene Cara, Frankie Valli, Roberta Flack, Jake Holmes, Cher, and Don McLean.

Drummer Ronnie Zito continues to perform and record.

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The Jazz Voyager

Off to the City That Never Sleeps aka The Big Apple on my way to Harlem and the venue that still represents the standard of the community. It is still called The Apollo. After a fantastic performance in Boston it is good to be back home to experience the delights of the neighborhood.

Critically acclaimed composer and trumpeter Russell Gunn and his Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra brings to life poet and author Amiri Baraka’s groundbreaking work, Blues People: Negro Music in White America. Special guests include Weedie Braimah, Davell Crawford, Miles Griffith, Craig Harris, Stefon Harris, Jazzmeia Horn, Oliver Lake, Jessica Care Moore, and Leon Timbo.

The building that later became the Apollo Theater was built in 1913 and was designed by architect George Keister. It was originally Hurtig and Seamon’s New (Burlesque) Theater, which enforced a strict “Whites Only” policy. The theater was operated by noted burlesque producers Jules Hurtig and Harry Seamon. They made alterations to the theater that same year and renamed it The Apollo.

In 1924, the Minskys took a long-term lease for burlesque shows, some of which included integrated casts with black performers such as Pigmeat Markham. After New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia cracked down on burlesque, the theater was purchased in 1933 by Sidney Cohen, who owned other theaters in the area. Lavish renovations were made and it re-opened on January 26, 1934 catering to the Black community of Harlem. On February 14, 1934, the first major star to appear at the Apollo was jazz singer and Broadway star Adelaide Hall in Clarence Robinson’s production Chocolate Soldiers, which featured Sam Wooding’s Orchestra. The show ran for a limited engagement and was highly praised by the press, which helped establish Apollo’s reputation.

The Apollo’s number is 212-531-5300. If you want to get more show information visit https://notoriousjazz.com/event/russell-gunn-the-royal-krunk-jazz-orchestra.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Paul Crawford was born on February 16, 1925 in Atmore, Alabama, to parents who were a Baptist minister and a music teacher. After serving in the Navy during World War II he graduated from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York where he studied trombone in a classical style. He went on to study under trombonist and teacher Emory Remington, pursued for a time graduate studies at the University of Alabama. Moving to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1951 he became a specialist in the Dixieland style of Jazz.

Crawford initially took up residence in the French Quarter of New Orleans where he became acquainted with people in the local arts and music scene. He also started performing at the New Orleans Jazz Club and learned to play Dixieland. Soon after he became co-bandleader of the Crawford-Ferguson Night Owls, with Leonard Ferguson, frequently performing on the steamboat President.

He made his first recordings on trombone in 1957 with the Lakefront Loungers. During this time, Paul played the trombone on non-paying gigs, and participated in jam sessions. He performed with Sharkey Bonano and with bandleader Paul “Doc” Evans.

By the 1950s, with Deep South laws prohibiting white musicians from performing with Black musicians, jobs dried up. As these laws were struck down in the 1960s, opportunities opened up for Crawford to perform with various notable Black jazz musicians in New Orleans. In 1964, Crawford was approached by Allan Jaffe, who was the owner of Preservation Hall, about performing at the Preservation Hall venue. With Punch Miller, he became a part of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Shortly thereafter, he became a part of the Olympia Brass Band, marched in many New Orleans Jazz Funerals and often performed with the baritone horn. He was a founding member of the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra. As a member of this group and others, he helped make the soundtrack for the movies “Pretty Baby” and “Live and Let Die”, as well as many other recording sessions. Crawford played the baritone horn in many performances of the musical “One Mo’ Time”.

Crawford was an associate curator at the Tulane University Hogan Jazz Archive. As curator, conducted numerous interviews for an oral history of jazz, and resurrected many forgotten pieces of jazz music and developed arrangements of them. He also developed a significant number of photos of jazz musicians and performances, in a private collection.

Trombonist, baritone hornist, arranger and music historian Paul Crawford, who specialized in Dixieland jazz, transitioned on July 31, 1996 of lung cancer. He had been living in a New Orleans skilled nursing facility at the time.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Csaba Deseo was born February 15, 1939 in Budapest, Hungary. His mother was a violin teacher and he began playing the instrument at the age of 10. He continued his musical education at Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest, and got his diploma in 1961. He taught in music schools until 1967 when he became a member of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, where he played until 1999. During the time he played innumerable concerts in Hungary and in many countries of the world from Japan to the United States. He performed with artists like Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, Ádám Fischer, and Yehudi Menuhin, to name a few.

His career took off in 1963 when he appeared with his first group at the legendary Dalia Club in his hometown. From 1964 they gave regular concerts and were frequently featured on Hungarian Radio and TV. He would play at festivals and jamborees in the Sixties, then recorded his debut album under his own name Four String Tschaba in 1975 for MPS Records in West Germany. In that session Deseo played both violin and viola, and he would go on to record 4 LPs and 6 CDs with Hungarian and foreign musicians.

1975 saw Csaba meeting Zagreb vibraphonist Bosko Petrovic, with whom he played regularly until 2011. He also appears as a guest star in Germany, where he usually solos with the group of Walter Kurowski.

Since 1980 Deseo has fronted bands with different line-ups. His more important partners were pianist Laszlo Gardony, vibraphonist Richard Kruza, guitarist Andor Kovacs, bassist Bela Lattmann and drummer Imre Koszegi. Since 1990 he’s been working mainly in a trio and is a regular guest artist at the concerts of the Benko Dixieland Band and the Budapest Ragtime Band.

During the past few decades he has also played with international stars and is a regular contributor to the specialist Hungarian music magazine, Gramofon ~ Classical and Jazz. Violinist Csaba Deseo continues to perform and record.

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