Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marzette Watts was born March 9, 1938 in Montgomery, Alabama. Early in his life he played piano but did not play regularly in his teens. While studying at Alabama State College he became a founding member of SNCC, however, this association led to his being forced to leave the state at the behest of the governor.
He moved to New York, where he lived in a loft building on Cooper Square where Leroi Jones aka Amiri Barak lived and with whom he participated in the Organization of Young Men.. Watts returned to college in New York, completing his studies in 1962; and then moved to Paris to study painting at the Sorbonne and began playing saxophone for extra money.
Returning to New York in 1963, Marzette studied under Don Cherry, played in his loft and around the city with Juini Booth, Henry Grimes, J.C. Moses, and others. He also continued painting, producing work strongly influenced by Willem de Kooning. His loft attracted many established and up-and-coming musicians who would hang out there and play at parties, including Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders.
By 1965 he devoted himself to music more fully, moved to Denmark for further study. Moving back and forth between Europe and New York City, while in New York he recorded an album for ESP-Disk and another for Savoy Records, and aught briefly at Wesleyan University.
He wrote film scores and did production work for his own films, eventually abandoning music to work in film and record production. Late in his life he moved to Santa Cruz, California but free jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist, bass clarinetist and sound engineer Marzette Watts passed away in Nashville, Tennessee of heart failure on March 2, 1998.
Dose A Day-Blues Away
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gábor Szabó was born Szabó Gábor István on March 8, 1936 in Budapest, Hungary and began playing guitar at the age of 14, inspired by jazz music heard on Voice of America. He escaped Hungary in 1956, the year of the attempted revolt against Soviet dominated Communist rule, and moved to the United States. Once there he attended the Berklee School of Music.
In 1958, he was invited to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival. He then went on to perform with the quintet of Southern California drummer Chico Hamilton from 1961 to 1965, playing what has been described as chamber jazz, with “a moderate avant-gardism. In 1962 and 1963, Hamilton’s bands cut two albums consisting entirely of saxophonist Charles Lloyd compositions. The title track of Man From Two Worlds featured Szabó’s guitar on top of a propulsive beat, parrying with Lloyd’s tenor sax.
Throughout the Sixties and Seventies he cut a span of albums as a leader for Impulse! Record label, co-founded the short-lived Skye Records with Cal Tjader and Gary McFarland, recorded an album with Lena Horne, and performed and recorded with The California Dreamers, Ron Carter, Paul Desmond and Bobby Womack. His playing also influenced guitarist Carlos Santana witnessed by Szabó’s mid-1960s jazz/gypsy guitar work in his Gypsy Queen and Santana’s Black Magic Woman.
He would go on to be label mates with George Benson at CTI, became affiliated with the Church of Scientology and signed in November 1978 with their Vanguard Artists International that brought its own set of troubles to his career, eventually ended uo with cross-suits aimed at both parties. He recorded twenty-four albums as a leader, and also worked with Steve Allen, Coke Escovedo and Santana, infusing jazz, pop-rock and his native Hungarian music.
Despite his influence on jazz music and the caliber of players with whom he performed, Gábor Szabó, who felt he was never fully accepted as a jazz artist in the United States, passed away on February 26, 1982 in his hometown, Budapest.
Take A Dose On The Road
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louis Albert Cottrell, Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 7, 1911. Raised in an upper class Creole musical family, his father Louis Cottrell Sr. was an influential drummer and cornetist Manny Perez was his godfather. Growing up around John Robichaux, A.J. Piron and Barney Bigard, the latter giving him lessons as well as studying under Lorenzo Tio, Jr.
He began his career in the 1920s with the Golden Rule Orchestra and by 1925 was playing with “Polo” Barnes. Louis would go on to work with Chris Kelly, Kid Rena, on the riverboat SS Island Queen with Lawrence Marrero’s young Tuxedo Brass Band and with Sidney Desvigne.
During this period he became a prominent union organizer, joining Don Albert’s orchestra soon after, recording an album with the orchestra in 1935 under the Vocalion label. Trying his hand at composing, with Lloyd Glenn and Albert wrote You Don’t Love Me (True) that became one of the hits of the R&B New Orleans era for bandleader Paul Gayten.
During the 40s he had an enduring collaboration with Paul Barbarin, played with Piron and Desvigne, formed and recorded for the first time as a leader in 1961 with the Louis Cottrell Trio for Riverside Records Living Legends series and with Barbarin revived the Onward Brass Band. His sideman duties led him to perform and record with Peter Bocage, Jim Robinson, Harold Dejan, Thomas Jefferson, Sweet Emma Barrett, Avery Kid Howard, Waldren Joseph, and Polo Barnes.
In 1971 Louis formed the Heritage Hall Jazz Band, leading that ensemble up until his death. Under his leadership the band rivaled Preservation Hall and with Blanche Thomas on vocals played Carnegie Hall in 1974. He went on to make several television appearances on the Perry Como and Mike Douglas shows, had a cameo and recorded Academy Award nominated Big Lip Blues for the soundtrack of 1978 film Pretty Baby.
Clarinetist and saxophonist Louis Cottrell died suddenly at his home after a short illness on March 21, 1978 at the age of 67. Fittingly, he was honored with a jazz funeral, as thousands assembled in a small Gentilly Catholic church to bid him farewell.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Palle Mikkelborg was born on March 6, 1941 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Self-taught on trumpet in his youth, he started playing professionally in 1960 and in 1963 joined the Danish Radio Jazz Group, leading it from 1967-1972.
Performing at the Newport Jazz Festival with a quintet helped solidify Palle as a dominant figure on the Danish and international progressive jazz scenes. He has recorded as a leader for Debut, Metronome, Sonet, Storyville, and ECM.
Releasing several solo records, Mikkelborg has also recorded with various co-founded groups, as well as performing sideman duties or arranger on numerous international records.
His most notable international collaborations include the Gil Evans Big Band, the George Russell Big Band, George Gruntz’s Concert Jazz Band, Abdullah Ibrahim, Dexter Gordon, Karin Krog, Gary Peacock, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Terje Rypdal, Thomas Clausen, Jan Garbarek and many others. With Miles Davis, he composed a suite and produced the 1989 album release Aura.
In 2001 he was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize. Avant-garde and post-bop trumpeter, composer, arranger and producer Palle Mikkelborg has continued to perform, record and tour.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carol Sloane was born on March 5, 1937 in Providence, Rhode Island. She has been singing professionally since she the age of 14. Between September 1967 and May 1968, she occasionally wrote album reviews for Down Beat and for a time in the 1970s she worked as a legal secretary in Raleigh, North Carolina
One of her early efforts was working with the Les and Larry Elgart orchestra. Later she filled in for Annie Ross of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. But by 1961, with success at the Newport Jazz Festival Carol landed a multi-album contract with Columbia Records.
In the 70s her career stalled for a time, but Sloane was able to resume live performance and recording by the 1980s. She later signed with Concord Records and found some successes touring Japan.
She has worked with Tim Horner, George Duvivier, Art Davis, Barry Galbraith Clark Terry, Nick Travis, Bob Brookmeyer, Richie Pratt, Art Farmer, Clifford Jordan, Kenny Burrell, Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid, Grady Tate and Ken Peplowski, just to names a few. Vocalist Carol Sloane continues to perform, record and tour.
Uplift Someone’s World
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