The Jazz Voyager
The Jazz Voyager is heading off to the sea islands state where the Civil War started to the corner of The Village at Wexford where the Jazz Corner is located at 1000 William Hilton Parkway, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928. The Hilton Head landmark is celebrating twenty years of offering superb jazz music and gourmet food in a chic yet charming venue amid the natural beauty of the low country.
The venue is the dream of the late jazz musician and historian, Bob Masteller, and he established the 99-seat space is an ideal setting to enjoy an evening of vocalist Tierney Sutton and trumpeter/vocalist Joe Gransden along with a bit of Southern-inspired cuisine. For more information and reservations the number is 843-842-8620.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nelson Boyd was born on February 6, 1928 in Camden, New Jersey and played in local orchestras in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 1945. Two years later he moved to New York City in 1947 and played with Coleman Hawkins, Tadd Dameron, and Dexter Gordon, and later with Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Barnet in 1948.
In 1947, he recorded with Fats Navarro and Charlie Parker, later with Jay Jay Johnson on Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool sessions in 1949. In addition, the Davis composition Half Nelson was named after Boyd because of his stature.
After 1949, he often played with Gillespie and toured the Middle East with him in 1956. Later, he recorded with Melba Liston in 1958 with her trombone ultimates on Melba Liston and Her ‘Bones. Boyd also did sessions with Max Roach and Thelonious Monk. His last recordings were in 1964. Bebop bassist Nelson Boyd passed away in October 1985 in his hometown of Camden.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chris Biscoe was born on February 5, 1947, in Pensford, Somerset, England and in 1963 taught himself to play alto saxophone and then started playing tenor, soprano, baritone, and also comparatively rare alto clarinet. Before he became a notable presence on the UK Jazz scene, he was a computer programmer.
From 1970 to 1973 Biscoe played with National Youth Jazz Orchestra in London, doing gigs with various other London-based bands of that period, including Redbrass. He worked with several notable jazz musicians during the Seventies such as Harry Beckett, Ken Hyder, Didier Levallet, Chris McGregor, Andy Sheppard, Graham Collier, Danilo Terenzi, Pete Hurt, Tommy Chase, Pete Saberton, Barry Guy, Dave Holdsworth, and Pete Jacobsen.
In 1979, Chris had a long-term association with Mike Westbrook touring throughout Europe and playing international festivals in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada and the USA. In the same year, he also formed a quartet featuring Peter Jacobsen, expanded to a quintet in 1980, a sextet in 1986, and reformed as a quartet in 1987. During the Eighties he also recorded two albums.
During the late 1980s and 1990s, Biscoe toured and recorded with George Russell, Andy Sheppard, Liam Noble, Gail Thompson’s Jazz Africa, Harry Beckett, and also played in France with Didier Levallet’s groups and the collective band called Zhivaro. In 1991, he released a second cassette, Modern Alarms, and also recorded in the Dedication Orchestra in the Spirits Rejoice project.
Between 1997 and 2000, he became the first English musician to join the Orchestre National de Jazz. Multi-instrumentalist Chris Biscoe plays the alto, soprano, tenor and baritone saxophone, the alto clarinet, piccolo, and flute and continues to play and record.
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Three Wishes
Johnny Barracuda was asked by Nica what his three wishes would be, he told her:
- “I’d like to have my own club in Mexico City.”
- “That the club’d make enough money so I could sustain my family.”
- “Good health to fulfill the former.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Duke Dejan was born Harold Andrew Dejan into a Creole family in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 4, 1909. He took clarinet lessons as a child before switching to the saxophone, and became a professional musician in his teens, joining the Olympia Serenaders and then the Holy Ghost Brass Band. He played regularly in Storyville, at Mahogany Hall, and on Mississippi riverboats.
During World War Two he played in Navy bands. Afterwards, Duke worked in the mail office of the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company for 23 years while maintaining a parallel musical career, leading his own band, Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band, from 1951. The band often appeared at Preservation Hall, recorded nine albums, and also toured internationally, making 30 concert tours of Europe and one of Africa. The band was featured in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die and in many television commercials.
Suffering a stroke in 1991 left him unable to play the saxophone but he continued as a bandleader and singer until shortly before his death on July 5, 2002 at the age of 93. Alto saxophonist and bandleader Harold Dejan best remembered as the leader of the Olympia Brass Band, including during the 1960s and 1970s when it was considered the top band in the city.
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