Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Sylvester “Red“ Callender was born on March 6, 1916 in Haynesville, Virginia. He made his recording debut at 19 with Louis Armstrong’s band. In the early 1940s, he played in the Lester and Lee Young band, and then formed his own trio. Through the 1940s, he recorded with Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, Charlie Parker, Wardell Gray, Dexter Gordon, Uffe Baadh and many others.

After a period spent leading a trio in Hawaii, Callender returned to the mainland, settling in Los Angeles, California. He became one of the first black musicians to work regularly in the commercial studios, including backing singer Linda Hayes on two singles. He would later turn down offers to work with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and the Louis Armstrong All-Stars.

On his 1957 Crown LP Speaks Low, Callender was one of the earliest modern jazz tuba soloists. Keeping busy up until his death, some of the highlights of the bassist’s later career include recording with Art Tatum and Jo Jones, playing with Charles Mingus at the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival, working with James Newton’s avant-garde woodwind quintet on tuba, and performing as a regular member of the Cheatham’s Sweet Baby Blues Band.

He reached the top of the British pop charts as a member of B. Bumble and the Stingers. In 1964, he was introduced and highlighted in performance with entertainer Danny Kaye  on his television variety show, in a duet on the George and Ira Gershwin song, Slap That Bass.

He worked with an array of pop, rock and vocal acts as a member of The Wrecking Crew, a group of first-call session musicians in Los Angeles, California. Double bassist Red Callender, who also plays tuba, transitioned from thyroid cancer at his home in Saugus, California on March 8, 1992.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Arthur Probert, Jr. was born on March 5, 1927 in Los Angeles, California and was an autodidact on his instruments. He first played with Bob Scobey from 1950 to 1953 and then went on to play with Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band.

Between 1954 and 1969, George played in the Firehouse Five Plus Two Dixieland Revival Band, an ensemble formed by Walt Disney Studios animators. They recorded with Disney composer George Bruns in 1957 and again in 1968.

Probert led his own bands from 1973, touring America and Europe. In 1997 he toured England, Germany & the Netherlands with Big Bill Bissonnette’s International Jazz Band. The all-star group featured Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen of New Orleans & British pianist Pat Hawes.

Clarinetist, soprano saxophonist and bandleader George Probert, who also worked as a television and movie music editor, transitioned on January 10, 2015 in Monrovia, California.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ricky Ford was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 4, 1954 and studied at the New England Conservatory. At the age of twenty he recorded with Gunther Schuller and then played in the Duke Ellington Orchestra under Mercer Ellington from 1974 to 1976.

Moving on to play with Charles Mingus from 1976 to 197777, the Dannie Richmond from ‘78 to ‘81, followed by Lionel Hampton for two years beginning in 1980 and ending up in the Mingus Dynasty. By 1983 Ricky was also played with Abdullah Ibrahim, a relationship that lasted for seven years. By the end of the decade he was also playing with Mal Waldron until 1994.

Ford has recorded twenty~two albums as a leader for Muse, Candid, and other labels. As a sideman he has recorded with but not limited to Yusef Lateef, Sonny Stitt, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Amina Claudine Myers, Sathima Bea Benjamin, Ran Blake, Steve Lacy, Jaki Byard, Red Rodney, Jack Walrath and others.

Tenor saxophonist Ricky Ford settled in Paris, France in the 1990s, has taught at Istanbul Bilgi University from 2001 to 2006, and in 2009 he founded the Toucy Jazz Festival in Yonne, France. He continues his pursuit of his music.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Lyman Woodard was born on March 3, 1942 in Owosso, Michigan. He started his musical career with a trio with drummer Melvin Davis and guitarist Dennis Coffey. They recorded the album Hair And Thangs that was released under Coffey’s name, however a single with It’s Your Thing and River Rouge was released under the name of Dennis Coffey and the Lyman Woodard Trio.

From the late 1960s, Woodard recorded with Motown acts, and served as musical director for Martha and the Vandellas. Establishing the jazz~funk band, the Lyman Woodard Organization in 1975 recorded Saturday Night Special, and in 1979, he recorded Don’t Stop The Groove, for the Corridor label. His 1987 recording, Dedicacion, featured violinist Regina Carter.

In March 2009, Wax Poetics Records reissued a limited pressing of his Saturday Night Special as a double LP on 180-gram vinyl.

Organist Lyman Woodard, who was based in Detroit, Michigan and was known for his ability to fuse Latin and Afro~Cuban inspired rhythms, transitioned on February 25, 2009 in his hometown of Owosso.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

James Edward Davis was born in 1915 in Madison, Georgia. He and his family moved to Gary, Illinois, and then to Englewood, New Jersey, where he completed his high school education. Being musically gifted, he was accepted into the Juilliard School in New York City to study piano and composition, his fees being paid by a benefactress.

In the late 1930s he wrote the song Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) with Ram Ramirez but could not initially place it, until he offered it to Billie Holiday in 1942. However, due to the 1942–44 musicians’ strike Holiday didn’t record the song until 1944. Although at first it was only a minor hit, it soon achieved widespread success and went on to become a jazz standard.

During the early 1940s Davis struggled to make a living as a songwriter and supplemented his meagre royalties by giving piano lessons. Drafted in 1942, but as a member of the NAACP, refused enlistment into the segregated regiment, was ultimately imprisoned for thirteen days, then inducted into the army, serving three and a half years. By 1945, as a warrant officer, he was sent to France for six months, and learned the language. Back home, upon his discharge he left for Hollywood, joined the Actors’ Laboratory Theatre, however his acting career only offered stereotypical racial roles. At the end of 1947 he emigrated to France.

Warmly welcomed in Paris, in part, due to the fame of the song Lover Man, he styled himself Jimmy “Lover Man” Davis and entered a highly creative period, writing a number of songs and placing them with major French performers, such as Yves Montand, Maurice Chevalier, and Joséphine Baker. His songwriting royalties were still insufficient to live on, so he began singing his own songs in solo performances, touring through France, Italy, Holland, Spain, Switzerland and other countries.

Composer, songwriter, vocalist, pianist and actor Jimmy Davis, whose birth and death dates are currently unknown, and who was a close friend of Langston Hughes, transitioned in Paris, France in 1997. His biography, In Search of Jimmy ‘Lover Man’ Davis, was written by Professor François Grosjean.

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