Daily Dose of Jazz…

Nappy Lamare was born Joseph Hilton Lamare on June 14, 1905 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He got his nickname from his friend, Eddie Miller, because he had curly hair. He started playing trumpet but picked up the banjo when he was thirteen and weeks later he was a member of the Midnight Serenaders. During his teen years he worked with Sharkey Bonano, Monk Hazel, and Johnny Wiggs. In 1925 he toured in California with Johnny Bayersdorffer, then recorded for the first time two years later with the New Orleans Owls.

A move to New York City had him playing mostly guitar instead of banjo and he became a member of the Ben Pollack Orchestra and sang on Two Tickets to Georgia. Lamare remained with the band until 1942, performing on records and films, sometimes as a vocalist. He moved to California and spent the rest of his career playing Dixieland as leader of the Louisiana Levee Loungers, then the Straw Hat Strutters in the 1940s and 1950s. The Strutters appeared in the movie Hollywood Rhythm and on the weekly TV variety show Dixie Showboat.

The latter part of his career he spent in reunions with Bob Crosby, performing at Disneyland, and touring with the World’s Greatest Jazz Band. He played guitar, banjo, and sang until his transition at the age of 82 on May 8, 1988.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Attila Cornelius Zoller was born on June 13, 1927 in Visegrád, Hungary. As a child, he learned violin from his father, a professional violinist. While in school, he played flugelhorn and bass before landing on the guitar. Dropping out of school he played in jazz clubs in Budapest while Russia occupied Hungary. He fled Hungary on foot through the Austrian mountains with his guitar in 1948 as the Soviet Union was establishing communist military rule. Settling in Vienna, he became an Austrian citizen and started a jazz group with accordionist Vera Auer.

The mid-1950s saw Zoller moving to Germany and playing with Jutta Hipp and Hans Koller. When American jazz musicians passed through, such as Oscar Pettiford and Lee Konitz, they persuaded him to move to the United States. He moved to the states after receiving a scholarship to the Lenox School of Jazz. One of his teachers was guitarist Jim Hall and his roommate was Ornette Coleman, who got him interested in free jazz.

From 1962–1965, Zoller performed in a group with flautist Herbie Mann, then Lee Konitz and Albert Mangelsdorff. Over the years, he played and recorded with Benny Goodman, Stan Getz, Red Norvo, Jimmy Raney, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Shirley Scott, Cal Tjader, Jimi Hendrix, and in New York City jazz clubs in the 1960s with pianist Don Friedman.

During the Seventies he started the Attila Zoller Jazz Clinics in Vermont, later named the Vermont Jazz Center, where he taught until 1998. He invented a bi-directional pickup, designed strings and a signature guitar series. Between the years 1989 and 1998, he played more and more with the German vibraphonist Wolfgang Lackerschmid. They also did recordings together. He performed with Tommy Flanagan and George Mraz in New York City three weeks before his transition in Townshend, Vermont on January 25, 1998.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Rubin “Zeke” Zarchy was born on June 12, 1915 in New York City on June 12, 1915. He first learned the violin, but after a stint as bugler with his Boy Scout troop he switched permanently to trumpet while in his early teens.

Zarchy joined the Joe Haymes Orchestra in 1935, and the following year played with Benny Goodman, and then Artie Shaw. He was there through the end of the decade with Bob Crosby and Red Norvo, Tommy Dorsey, and then with Glenn Miller in 1940.

Between 1942 and 1945 he played in US Army bands of what became Miller’s Army Air Force Band, officially the 418th Army Band, playing lead trumpet as Master First Sergeant. Zeke’s trumpet can be heard on recordings as Benny Goodman’s Bugle Call Rag, Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Cocktail, and Bob Crosby’s South Rampart Street Parade.

After the war Frank Sinatra invited Zarchy to move to Los Angeles, California where he became a first-call studio musician. He played on numerous recordings, including those led by Boyd Raeburn, Jerry Gray, Sarah Vaughan, and Frank Capp. He appeared on film in The Glenn Miller Story and through both the 1940s and 1950s swing era, he included occasional doubling on instruments to some degree, the saxophone and trombone.

During the 1960s and 1970s, he played in the house bands of several CBS TV variety shows, including The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Danny Kaye Show and The Jonathan Winters Show, and was a member of the NBC Staff Orchestras in New York and Los Angeles.

In his later years, Zarchy toured several times in Europe, South America, and Australia, as well as thirty-two concert trips to Japan. He tutored several young trumpet players who became successful performers and studio musicians.

Trumpeter Zeke Zarchy, who was a lead player of the big band and swing eras, transitioned in Irvine, California, on April 11, 2009.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Maurice Vander born Vanderschueren, on June 11, 1929 in Vitry-sur-Seine, Val-de-Marne, France. He worked in the 1950s with Don Byas, Django Reinhardt, Bobby Jaspar, Jimmy Raney, Stephane Grappelli, Chet Baker, and Kenny Clarke.

In the 1960s he was a session musician for Roger Guerin, Pierre Gossez, and Boulou Ferré, and played with Claude Nougaro and Ivan Jullien. He won the Prix Django Reinhardt in 1962.

Playing with Baker again in the late 1970s he went on to work with Johnny Griffin. His later work included performing and recording with Clarke, Richie Cole, Art Farmer, and Benny Powell.

Pianist Maurice Vander transitioned on February 16, 2017 in Paris, France.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Martin Abraham, better known as Chink Martin, on June 10, 1886 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He played guitar in his youth before settling on tuba as his main instrument. He played with Papa Jack Laine’s Reliance Brass Band around 1910, and worked in various other brass bands in the city in the 1910s.

In 1923, he traveled to Chicago, Illinois and played with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings with whom he made his first records. He also recorded guitar duets with Leon Roppolo, but these unfortunately were never issued. Returning to New Orleans with the Rhythm Kings in 1925, Martin made further recordings with them.

He also played with the Halfway House Orchestra with which he recorded on both tuba and string bass, the New Orleans Harmony Kings, and the New Orleans Swing Kings. In the 1930s, Martin worked as a staff musician at WSMB radio. He continued to play tuba for his entire career, though he also played and recorded on the double-bass from at least the 1920s onward.

He played with dozens of noted New Orleans jazz musicians, appearing on record with Sharkey Bonano, Santo Pecora, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, and others. Tubist Chink Martin, who released one album under his own name on Southland Records in 1963, transitioned on January 7, 1981 in New Orleans.

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