Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Melrose was born Franklyn Taft Melrose on November 26, 1907 in Sumner, Illinois, the younger brother of Walter and Lester who set up the Melrose Brothers Music Company in Chicago in 1918. His first instrument was the violin, but he later took up the piano, strongly influenced by his brothers’ business partner, Jelly Roll Morton.
In 1924 Frank left home and began drifting around, playing and settling for short periods in St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit and playing occasionally in Chicago with Jelly Roll. In 1929 his brother Lester recorded him performing piano solos that were released under the pseudonym of “Broadway Rastus”.
1930 saw Melrose recording “Jelly Roll Blues” and other tunes that were released on the Brunswick Record label’s “race” series under the pseudonym of “Kansas City Frank”, and for some years were wrongly assumed to be the work of Morton. Throughout the decade he continued to play piano in small clubs and bars, either solo or as part of a band, recorded sporadically with Johnny Dodds and others while occasionally working in a factory to support his family.
Pianist Frank Melrose, one of the leading figures in the Midwest blues and jazz scene during the 1920s and 30s played his last recording session with Bud Jacobson’s Jungle Kings. On Labor Day, September 1, 1941 he was found dead in the road after apparently being killed in a fracas in a club in Hammond, Indiana.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Etta Jones was born on November 25, 1928 in Aiken, South Carolina and was raised in Harlem, New York City. While in her teens she joined Buddy Johnson’s band and embarked on a nationwide tour. Her first recordings in 1944 Salty Papa Blues and Long, Long Journey were produced by Leonard Feather and backed by Barney Bigard, and George Auld. She would go on to perform with the Earl Hines Sextet from 1949 to ’52.
Over the course of her career Etta worked with Oliver Nelson, Kenny Burrell, Milt Jackson, Cedar Walton, Frank Wess, Roy Haynes, Gene Ammons and Houston Person, whom she met in one of Johnny Hammond’s bands. Jones’ thirty-year relationship with Person helped to ensure a long and prolific career with h Her best-known recordings were Grammy nominated “Don’t Go To Strangers” in 1960, “Save Your Love For Me” in 1981 and “My Buddy” in 1999.
She recorded for Prestige, Muse and HighNote record labels and secured her a loyal and devoted following. In 2008 her album Don’t Go To Strangers was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Vocalist Etta Jones passes away from cancer on October 16, 2001 at age 72 in Mount Vernon, New York.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alvin Gilbert Cohn was born on November 24, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York. He was initially known in the 1940s for playing in Woody Herman’s Second Herd as one of the Four Brothers, along with Zoot Sims, Stan Getz and Serge Chaloff. He contributed arrangements to the band until he left and formed a long association co-leading a quintet with Zoot while also playing with a variety of other musicians.
The partnership that began in 1956 lasted until Sims’ death and yielded one of their best albums on Mercury Records called You ‘n’ Me in 1960 and also backed Jack Kerouac on a few of his recordings. An accomplished arranger, Cohn worked Broadway arranging for such shows as Raisin’ and Sophisticated Ladies, worked with Linda Rondstadt, and appeared with Elvis Presley at Madison Square Garden.
Al Cohn, a tenor saxophonist, who had a reputation as a lyrical flowing soloist, passed away in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on February 15, 1988.
Take A Dose On The Road
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The Jazz Voyager
Katzy’s Jazz Club: Rosebank, Shop 70, Johannesburg, South Africa / The Firs / Hyatt Shopping Centre, c/o Oxford Road & Bierman Avenue / Telephone: 082 805 6855
Katzy’s is South Africa’s finest jazz club and is nestled in the Firs shopping centre in sophisticated Rosebank. It is the best place in town to hear live jazz, drink fine wines and over 100 whiskeys and smoke the tastiest cigars but be sure you can handle the smoke. Resident bands perform five nights a week offering a nightlife experience that defines class and entertainment.
Next Stop: Brisbane, Australia – Head out to Jo-burg Airport to catch A 15 hour and 45 minute flight on Qantas Airlines. It’s 11 hours and 55 minutes until we land in Sydney, Australia at 2:45pm the following day. An overnight flight with time szone changes at least I get to sleep. Then its a three hour layover before taking off again on Qantas for Brisbane at 5:05 for another time zone change finally landing an hour thirty0five minutes later in Brisbane. Off to the hotel and we’ll check out some jazz later.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ray Drummond was born on November 23, 1946 in Brookline, Massachusetts to an Army colonel and through his childhood attended 14 schools around the world. He played trumpet and French horn from the age of eight, then a high-school music teacher encouraged him to switch to the bass.
Briefly settling in northern California he matriculated through Claremont Men’s College and went on to Stanford Business School where he got his Masters in business administration. During those San Francisco years he played with Bobby Hutcherson, Michael White, Ed Kelly, Tom Harrell and Lester Young’s niece, Martha Young.
Moving to New York in 1977, Drummond worked as a session bass player for Betty Carter, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis, Woody Shaw, Hank Jones, Jon Faddis, Milt Jackson, Johnny Griffin, Kenny Barron, Pharoah Sanders and George Coleman.
In addition to working as a sideman and leading his own bands, Ray is an educator and has taught at the Monterey Peninsula College of Music and the California State University and has conducted master classes at Berklee College of Music, Purdue University, the University of Massachusetts and the Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, Finland.
Bassist Ray Drummond continues to co-lead The Drummonds with Renee Rosnes while recording as a sideman and can be heard on more than three hundred albums with the likes of Kevin Mahogany, Toots Thielemans, David Murray and Benny Golson to name a few.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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