The Jazz Voyager
The Jazz Voyager is taking the next letter of the alphabet and continuing to head west to the Emerald City in the Beaver state. Beyond its world class athletes, home of Nike, and tech giants, this small shire also boasts its love of jazz. Eugene, Oregon is where The Jazz Station is located downtown in the heart of the entertainment corridor. This intimate 70 seat non-profit all-age venue has been a jazz mainstay of the city for over 15 years.
Taking the stage this week is saxophonist Idit Schner and I have the opportunity to do something that I so enjoy, seeing someone perform I’ve never seen before. I look forward to hearing her blend Zimbabwean folk music and jazz. As an educator of classical and jazz music at the University of Oregon, she has received several teaching awards.
The Jazz Station’s address is 124 W Broadway 97401. For more information visit https://thejazzstation.org/.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wilfred Theodore Wemyes, known to the world as Ted Weems, was born on September 26, 1901 in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania. He learned to play the violin and trombone, and his start in music came when he entered a contest, hoping to win a pony. He won a violin instead and his parents arranged for music lessons, and was a graduate of Lincoln School in Pittsburgh. While still at Lincoln, he organized a band there, initially providing some instruments himself.
As an enterprising young man he reinvested money given him by his teacher and that collected from band members to buy better instruments for the band. His family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he enrolled at West Philadelphia High School, joined the school’s band and became its director. Ted went on to the University of Pennsylvania, where he and his brother Art organized a small dance band that became the All American Band. They soon started receiving offers to perform in well-known hotels throughout the United States. They were one of the bands that played at the inaugural ball of President Warren G Harding in 1921.
Going professional in 1923, Weems toured for the MCA Corporation and began recording for the Victor Talking Machine Company. His first #1 hit was Somebody Stole My Gal in early 1924 and recorded for Victor/RCA Victor and their Bluebird Records arm. He then signed with Columbia, and on to Decca. He also co-wrote several popular songs: The Martins and the McCoys, Jig Time, The One-Man Band, Three Shif’less Skonks, and Oh, Monah!, which he co-wrote with band member Country Washburn.
Moving to Chicago, Illinois with his band around 1928, his orchestra charted more success in 1929 and the band gained popularity in the 1930s, making regular radio broadcasts. He would go on to enlist with his entire band into the United States Merchant Marine in 1942, directing the Merchant Marine Band. After the war, with his new-found popularity of the 1938 Heartaches, Decca continued to re-release several of his hits, however, he reaped no benefit as his contract expired while he was in the military.
Weems made front-page news in 1947 when he publicly repaid his debt to disc jockey Kurt Webster, who had revived Heartaches and thus his career. He staged a benefit performance by his band and gave all proceeds going to war veteran Webster. Decca cashed in once again on his new popularity by reissuing another oldie, I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now with vocals by Perry Como, which became another major chart hit.
The hits dried up after 1947 but Ted continued touring until 1953 then accepted a disc jockey position in Memphis, Tennessee, later moving on to a management position with the Holiday Inn hotel chain.
Violinist, trombonist and bandleader Ted Weems, who operated a talent agency in Dallas, Texas with his son, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, died of emphysema in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 6, 1963.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dave Wilkins was born on September 25, 1914 in Barbados. He first played in Salvation Army bands in his native country. In 1937, he moved to London, England, where he worked with Ken Snakehips Johnson’s West Indian Swing Band among others.
He recorded with Una Mae Carlisle and Fats Waller in 1938, and continued to work with Johnson until 1941. Following this, he played with English jazz musicians such as Ted Heath, Harry Parry, Joe Daniels and Cab Kaye.
Trumpeter Dave Wilkins, who stopped playing in the 1970s, died on November 26, 1990 in London, England.
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Jazz Poems
LUSH LIFE
I used to visit all the very gay places,
Those come-what-may places,
Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life
From jazz and cocktails.
The girls i knew had sad and sullen gray faces,
With distingué traces
That used to be there.
You could see where
They’d been washed away
By too many through the day
Twelve o’clock tails.
Then you came along
With your siren song
To tempt me to madness.
I thought for a while
That your poignant smile
Was tinged with the sadness
Of a great love for me.
Ah, yes, I was wrong,
Again, I was wrong!
Life is lonely again,
And only last year
Ev’rything seemed so sure.
Now life is awful again,
A troughful of hearts could only be a bore.
A week in Paris will ease the bite of it.
All I care is to smile in spite of it.
I’ll forget you, I will,
While yet you are still
Burning inside my brain.
Romance is mush, stifling those who strive.
I’ll live a lush life in some small dive,
>And there I’ll be, while I rot with the rest
Of those whose lives are lonely too.
BILLY STRAYHORN
from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jack James Costanzo was born on September 24, 1919 in Chicago, Illinois to Italian parents. Starting his career as a dancer, he toured as a team with his wife before World War II. After his discharge from the Navy, he worked as a dance instructor at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Latin band leader Bobby Ramos heard him playing bongos in a jam session and offered him a job.
He visited Havana, Cuba three times in the 1940s and learned to play Afro-Cuban rhythms on the bongos and congas. Throughout the 1940s, Costanzo worked with several Latin bands, including a revived version of the Lecuona Cuban Boys, Desi Arnaz, and Rene Touzet.
Jack toured with Stan Kenton from 1947 to 1948 and occasionally in the 1950s, and played with Nat King Cole from 1949 to 1953. He also played with the Billy May Orchestra, Peggy Lee, Danny Kaye, Perez Prado, Charlie Barnet, Pete Rugolo, Betty Grable, Harry James, Judy Garland, Patti Page, Jane Powell, Ray Anthony, Martin & Lewis, Frances Faye, Dinah Shore, Xavier Cugat, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, and Eddie Fisher.
Costanzo formed his own band in the 1950s which recorded and toured internationally. Hollywood stars Marlon Brando, Rita Moreno, Carolyn Jones, Hugh O’Brian, Keenan Wynn, Van Johnson, Tony Curtis, Betty Grable, Vic Damone, James Dean, and Gary Cooper among others, studied bongos with him.
He went into retirement until 1998 when he decided to make a comeback. In 2001 he recorded Back From Havana featuring Gilbert Castellanos, Steve Firerobing and singer Marilu. In 2002 he released his sophomore album with the same cast called Scorching The Skins. He continued to tour and perform in California and abroad.
Percussionist, dancer, composer and bandleader Jack Costanzo, nicknamed Mr. Bongo, died of complications from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm at his home on August 18, 2018 in Lakeside, California at the age of 98.
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