Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rosa Henderson was born Rosa Deschamps on November 24, 1896 in Henderson, Kentucky. Her career as an entertainer began in 1913 when she joined her uncle’s circus troupe. She married Douglas “Slim” Henderson in 1918 and began traveling with his Mason-Henderson show. As a musical comedian she started during the early 1920s after moving to New York City, where she performed on Broadway. She would eventually perform in London.
Over the course of nine years she recorded over one hundred songs beginning in 1923. During that time she sometimes used pseudonyms such as Sally Ritz, Flora Dale, Sarah Johnson, Josephine Thomas, Gladys White, and Mamie Harris. She was accompanied by the Virginians, Fletcher Henderson’s Jazz Five, Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, Fletcher Henderson’s Club Alabam Orchestra, the Choo Choo Jazzers, the Kansas City Five, the Three Jolly Miners, the Kansas City Four, the Three Hot Eskimos, and the Four Black Diamonds.
She recorded for Ajax Records, Columbia, Paramount, Victor, and Vocalion Records. Her recordings include Afternoon Blues, Doggone Blues, Do Right Blues, He May Be Your Dog But He’s Wearing My Collar, and Papa If You Can’t Do Better (I’ll Let a Better Papa Move In).
After 1926, due largely in part to the death of her husband her recordings became limited, however, she continued performing until 1932. At that point Rosa took a job in a New York department store, but continued to perform benefit concerts until the Sixties.
Unrelated to Fletcher, Horace, Katherine, or Edmonia Henderson, vocalist Rosa Henderson, who sang jazz, blues and was a vaudeville performer of the Harlem Renaissance era, transitioned from a heart attack in 1968 on April 6, 1968.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Norman Dewey Keenan was born on November 23, 1916 in Union, South Carolina. He began playing piano before learning bass at age 15.
In the mid~1930s he worked with Tiny Bradshaw, Lucky Millinder, Henry Wells, Earl Bostic, and Cootie Williams into the Forties, and jammed at Minton’s Playhouse around the same time.
Following World War II he worked with Williams again and with Eddie Cleanhead Vinson in 1947-49. Then he became the bassist in the house trio at the Village Vanguard until 1957. After backing and recording three albums with Harry Belafonte from 1957 to 1962, Keenan worked on the TV show Hootenanny.
He began playing jazz again in the 1960s, recording with Miriam Makeba, Chad Mitchell, Count Basie from 1965-74, recording twenty-one albums with the orchestra, and Roy Eldridge in 1966. Double bassist Norman Keenan transitioned on February 12, 1980 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paul D. “Polo” Barnes was born November 22, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He attended St. Paul Lutheran College and began playing alto saxophone in 1919. He and Lawrence Marrero formed the Original Diamond Band, which would become known as the Young Tuxedo Band.
He was with Kid Rena in 1922, the Maple Leaf Orchestra in 1923, and Papa Celestin’s Original Tuxedo Band later that year. Celestin’s group recorded his tune My Josephine, which became quite popular. Polo played with Chick Webb in 1927, toured with Jelly Roll Morton in 1928-29 and with King Oliver three times in 1927, 1931, and 1934–35.
In 1932 and 1933 Barnes led his own band. He would go on to play with Chester Zardis and Kid Howard through the Thirties. He played in Algiers, Louisiana in a Navy band from 1942 to 1945, then returned to work with Celestin from 1946 to 1951.
Moving to California he left music from 1952 to 1957. Returning to New Orleans in 1959 he played with Paul Barbarin. In 1962 to 1965 Polo joined the Young Men From New Orleans band that played on a riverboat at Disneyland. He came back home again in 1964 and played at Preservation Hall and Dixieland Hall. He toured Europe in 1973 and 1974, but poor health ended his career in 1977.
Clarinetist and saxophonist Polo Barnes, who was the brother of clarinetist Emile Barnes and was a mainstay of the New Orleans jazz scene during the jazz age, transitioned on April 3, 1981.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Conti was born November 21, 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was an autodidact, first performing locally at age fourteen and mentoring with Pat Martino. In 1966, after four years on the road touring North America, he settled in Jacksonville, Florida.
In 1970, he dropped out of the music business to work in the securities field. Six years later he picked up his guitar and by 1979, he signed with Discovery Records. Conti released Solo Guitar as his debut as a leader and his sophomore project Latin Love Affair. By 1982 he left music again for the business world but again in 1985 he released another album. The following year he headlined the Florida National Jazz Festival, with Jimmy McGriff and Nick Brignola as his sidemen.
In mid-1988 he was offered a position under filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis in Beverly Hills, California. After a lengthy recovery from a back injury in late 1988, he was offered a position as resident jazz guitarist at the Irvine Marriott, a job he held until 1998.
Since starting his website in 2000, he has released 30 educational DVDs on jazz guitar, including pro chord melody and improvisation using his No Modes No Scales approach to teaching jazz guitar. Guitarist and educator Robert Conti, who has his own line of solid spruce thinline archtop jazz guitars since 2009, continues to teach, and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Julian Fuhs was born on November 20, 1891 in Berlin, Germany. After attending the Stern Conservatory he emigrated to the United States in 1910 and got his American citizenship in 1916. Returning to Berlin in 1924 he put together his Follies Band, whose American-influenced jazz and light music was extremely successful.
He made a significant contribution to the establishment of jazz in Germany in the 1920s. Fuhs was the first to use a three-part saxophone section and was considered the German counterpart to Paul Whiteman after his recording of George Gershwin ‘s Rhapsody in Blue. Fuhs was the first to record it in Europe.
In 1931, as a result of the global economic crisis, he was forced to disband his orchestra and earn his living as the owner of a bar. In 1933 he was repeatedly the victim of violent attacks because of his Jewish origins. He emigrated first to Austria, then to Czechoslovakia and France. In 1937 he returned to America, where he worked as a salesman.
Pianist and bandleader Julian Fuhs transitioned in poverty on February 4, 1975 in Miami, Florida.
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