Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Larry Sonn was born in Woodmere on Long Island, New York on January 17, 1919. GraduatING from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, he began his career with the Southern Symphony Orchestra in Columbia, South Carolina, as first trumpet, but later turned to the popular idioms of jazz and the big band sound.
He soon was playing trumpet and arranging for the top orchestras in the United States which included Glenn Miller, Teddy Powell, Bobby Byrne, Charlie Barnett, Hal McIntyre and Vincent Lopez.
A series of engagements in the early 1940’s took him to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and San Antonio, Texas. An executive from the new Hotel Reforma in Mexico City heard him play and, impressed by his virtuosity, offered Larry an appearance at the hotel’s Ciro’s Night Club. The short-term contract lasted nine years and falling in love with Mexico, the country reciprocated.
Sonn returned to the States in the late-50’s and put together a new orchestra to play jazz and dance music. He gained national exposure on NBC’s Monitor with Al Jazzbo Collins commentating. When Mexico called again he went back and formed one of the foremost big bands in the country. He toured, did radio shows for XEW, Mexico’s largest station, and recorded for RCA Victor, CBS, Cisne, Peerless, Sonart and other labels.
Retiring from music in 1972 he relocated 40 miles south of Mexico City and opened a popular book store specializing in US editions for English-speaking residents and tourists. After several years he retired completely.
Trumpeter, arranger, composer, and bandleader Larry Sonn transitioned in 2015 at 95 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Theodore Straight was born on January 16, 1891 in Chicago, Illinois. He started his career in 1909 at 18 accompanying singer Gene Greene in Vaudeville. In 1916, he began working at the Imperial Piano Roll Company in Chicago, where he recorded dozens of piano rolls.
Becoming a popular bandleader around town during the Jazz Age, his band, the Charley Straight Orchestra, had a long term engagement at the Rendezvous Café from 1922 to 1925 and recorded for Paramount Records and Brunswick Records during the decade.
This period also saw Straight working with Roy Bargy on the latter’s eight Piano Syncopations. Besides working as a pianist or leading an orchestra, he also composed and arranged music, both ragtime and jazz.
Pianist, bandleader and composer Charley Straight transitioned on September 22, 1940 in Chicago after being struck by an automobile while working as a city sanitary inspector. He was emerging from a manhole in the street.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alvin “Buddy” Banks was born on January 15, 1927 in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada and grew up in the United States. He became interested in music during high school, starting out on piano before switching to saxophone. During World War II he joined the United States Army Band as a bass player.
Making his first appearance on record was in Vienna, Austria with Thurmond Young, this group also played live at the Colored Club. He played in Paris, France with Gerry Wiggins in 1950, and then with Bill Coleman in Bern, Switzerland, Le Havre, France and Belgium. After problems with his passport in Switzerland, he left for Paris in 1953, where he recorded often with expatriate American jazz musicians as well as local performers.
These include Hazel Scott, Buck Clayton, Lionel Hampton, Mezz Mezzrow, Don Byas, Albert Nicholas, and André Persiany. He toured with Michel Attenoux and with Sidney Bechet through Western and Central Europe in 1954.
Double bassist Buddy Banks transitioned on August 7, 2005 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anthony Frank “Tony” Inzalaco, Jr. was born January 14, 1938 in Passaic, New Jersey. From childhood drumming he went on to obtain bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. He was active in the United States from 1959 to 1968, performing and/or recording with Vinnie Burke, Jaki Byard, Donald Byrd, Chris Connor, Maynard Ferguson, Jim Hall, Roger Kellaway, Morgana King, Lee Konitz, Morris Nanton, Duke Pearson, Benny Powell, Buddy Rich, Charlie Shavers, Johnny Smith, Billy Taylor, and Ben Webster.
Moving to Germany in 1968 he lived there for a decade as a member of the bands of Kurt Edelhagen and Eugen Cicero. He worked with Benny Bailey, Don Byas, Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland, Kenny Drew, Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Peter Herbolzheimer, Carmen McRae, Sal Nistico, Horace Parlan, Fritz Pauer, Oscar Peterson, Idrees Sulieman, Ben Webster again, Jiggs Whigham, Jimmy Woode, and Leo Wright during his time in the country.
After moving back to the States, he was active principally in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1980s, working with Byrd, Griffin, and Farmer again, as well as with Ruby Braff, Al Cohn, and Dakota Staton.
Relocating again to Los Angeles in the 1990s, drummer Tony Inzalaco has led his own ensemble for the past decade.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nathan Peck was born on January 13, 1925 in New York City and began playing the trombone as a teenager. After leaving high school he was drafted into the army and became part of Glenn Miller’s band. He remained with the band until after World War II ended.
He played with Don Redman in 1947 and studied classical music at the Paris Conservatory from 1949 to 1951, while playing and recording with leading jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, James Moody, and Roy Eldridge. During the 1950s Peck played on television in New York, and in 1953 he recorded with Dizzy Gillespie. He shuttled between Paris and New York until 1957, when he married dancer Vera Tietz, then settled in France.
In France, he played with Michel Legrand, André Hodeir and Duke Ellington. Spending some time in England and Germany, Nathan worked as a staff musician at Sender Freies Berlin and played with Quincy Jones and the Clarke-Boland Big Band from 1963 to 1969. Relocating to London, England in 1965, he became active in the studios, film, and television. He played with Benny Goodman in the early Seventies and with Peter Herbolzheimer by the end of the decade.
Later he worked mainly as a contractor with his company, London Studio Orchestras. While this led to him ending his playing career, he shifted his talents to putting together the best blend of session musicians that he could find. ‘The Italian Job’, ‘Yentl’, ‘The 3 Muskateers’, and many more great films, especially with French composers Michel Legrand and Philippe Sarde.
Trombonist Nathan Peck transitioned on October 24, 2015.
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