Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jackie Mills was born on March 11, 1922 in New York City and he first learned guitar before picking up drums when he was ten years old. He played in the swing groups of Charlie Barnet and Boyd Raeburn in the 1940s. He followed with gigs with Jazz at the Philharmonic, Gene Norman, Babe Russin, Mannie Klein, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Rene Touzet, Sonny Criss, Andre Previn, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, and Red Norvo.
In the late 1940s Jackie became interested in bebop and began playing in a style influenced by Max Roach. He began playing with Harry James in 1949, working with him through the late 1950s.
Mills recorded as a session musician during the 50s, working with artists such as Gerry Wiggins and Anita O’Day. In his later career, Mills recorded occasionally, including with Freddie Roach in 1966 and Dodo Marmarosa in 1978, but was chiefly active as a record producer and co-founder of Choreo Records, doing production work for Columbia, MGM, Mainstream, Capitol and Liberty Records.
In 1969, Mills acquired Larrabee Sound Studios from its co-founders Gerry Goffin and Carole King. As owner and operator through the mid-1980s, the studio was acquired by his son Kevin.
Drummer Jackie Mills transitioned on March 22, 2010 in Beaumont, California.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Donald Trenner was born in New Haven, Connecticut on March 10, 1927. He began his career playing with Ted Fio Rito from 1943 to 1945, and followed this with a slot in Buddy Morrow’s orchestra in 1947.
In the Fifties Donn worked with Charlie Barnet, Jerry Gray, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Georgie Auld, Jerry Fielding, Skinnay Ennis, Les Brown, Dick Haymes, Jack Jones, Lena Horne, Ann-Margret, Shirley MacLaine and Nancy Wilson. By 1957 he was playing with Oscar Pettiford and toured Europe the following year with Anita O’Day.
Entertaining the U.S. troops, Trenner toured with Bob Hope. In addition, he recorded with Tommy Dorsey, Vic Schoen, Howard McGhee, Frances Faye, Betty Roche, Nelson Riddle, Paul Broadnax, Dave Pell, Charles Mingus, and Ben Webster.
The 1960s saw him working as a studio musician, and leading The Steve Allen Show house band. He continued working in television throughout the 1970s and 80s. He led his own band, The Donn Trio with his first wife Helen Carr as the vocalist. Never recording as a leader, pianist and arranger Donn Trenner transitioned on May 16, 2020.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jerry Ross was born Jerold Rosenberg on March 9, 1926 in Bronx, New York to Russian parents of the Jewish faith. Growing up, he was a professional singer and actor in the Yiddish theater. Following high school, he studied at New York University under Rudolph Schramm and introductions to singer Eddie Fisher and others brought him into contact with music publishers at the Brill Building, the center of songwriting activity in New York.
Ross met Richard Adler in 1950 and as a duo they became protégés of composer, lyricist, and publisher Frank Loesser. They began their career in the Broadway theater with John Murray Anderson’s Almanac, a revue for which they provided most of the songs, resulting in recordings of Acorn in the Meadow by Harry Belafonte and Fini by Polly Bergen.
Their second effort, The Pajama Game, opened on Broadway in May 1954. It ran for 1063 performances, produced the jazz standard Hey There, won a Tony Award, Donaldson Award and the Variety Drama Critics Award. Two songs from the show,
Their next musical, Damn Yankees, opened on Broadway in 1955, starring Gwen Verdon. It ran for 1019 performances and produced the jazz standard Whatever Lola Wants, and won the Tony Award for Composer/Lyricist and Musical.
Composer and lyricist Jerry Ross, who wrote, alone or in collaboration more than 250 songs and was entered posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, transitioned on November 11, 1955, at the age of 29, from complications related to the lung disease bronchiectasis.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anat Fort was born March 8, 1970 near Tel Aviv, Israel. She studied music at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey and moved to New York City in 1996 to develop her skills in jazz improvisation under the guidance of pianist Paul Bley and study composition with Harold Seletsky before releasing her debut self-produced album Peel in 1999.
Signing with ECM Records, her first album A Long Story, released in 2007 arose from an association with drummer Paul Motian. This was followed by And If in 2010, the first album with her regular working group, the Anat Fort Trio.
Pianist and composer Anat Fort has recorded several acclaimed albums, has performed across Europe and the United States, and continues to pursue her jazz endeavors.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jean-Claude Naude was born on March 7, 1933 in Amiens, France. He attended the Amiens conservatory and played early in his career as a trumpeter for Raymond Fonsèque’s orchestra and with Georges Arvanitas.
By 1955 Naude was working with Maxim Saury, an association that would last a decade. He also played piano with Raymond Fonsèque in a trio with trombonist Luis Fuentes.
In the second half of the 1960s Jean~Claude led his own big bands and played with Gerard Badini, Jacky Samson, and Andre Paquinet. The 1970s saw him playing with Claude Bolling and in the 1980s with Bob Quibel.
Pianist and trumpeter Jean~Claude Naude transitioned on January 9, 2008.
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