Daily Dose Of Jazz…

John Lurie was born on December 14, 1952 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and was raised with his brother and sister in New Orleans, Louisiana and Worcester, Massachusetts.

In high school, he played basketball and harmonica and jammed with Mississippi Fred McDowell and Canned Heat in 1968. He briefly played the harmonica in a band from Boston, Massachusetts but soon switched to the guitar and eventually the saxophone.

After high school, he hitchhiked across the country to Berkeley, California. Moving to New York City in 1974, he briefly visited London, England where he performed his first saxophone solo at the Acme Gallery.

In 1978 John formed the Lounge Lizards with his brother Evan Lurie on piano. The two of them were the only constant members in the band through numerous lineup changes. In the early 1990s he formed a smaller group, the John Lurie National Orchestra and their work was heavily improvised.

By the early Nineties he was composing the theme to Late Night with Conan O’Brien with Howard Shore, which was also used when O’Brien hosted on The Tonight Show. He has written scores for over 20 movies, including Get Shorty, for which he received a Grammy Award nomination. As an actor he has starred, acted or made cameos in nineteen films and numerous television shows.

Saxophonist, painter, actor, director, and producer John Lurie has suffered debilitating ill health since 2000 with initially baffling neurological symptoms, and from symptoms attributed to chronic Lyme disease. The illness prevents him from acting or performing music, so he spends his time painting. His art has been shown in galleries and museums around the world. His 1980s NYC memoir, The History of Bones, was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.

More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Sonny Greer was born William Alexander Greer on December 13, c. 1895 in Long Branch, New Jersey. He played with Elmer Snowden’s band and the Howard Theatre Orchestra in Washington, D.C., before joining Duke Ellington.  Meeting him in 1919, he was Ellington’s first drummer, playing with his quintet, the Washingtonians. He then moved with Ellington into the Cotton Club.

As a result of his job as a designer with the Leedy Drum Company of Indiana, Greer was able to build up a huge drum kit worth over a then-considerable $3,000, including chimes, a gong, timpani, and vibes.

A heavy drinker, as well as a pool-hall hustler when he needed to retrieve his drums from the pawnbroker, in 1950, Ellington responded to his drinking and occasional unreliability by taking a second drummer, Butch Ballard, with them on a tour of Scandinavia. This enraged Greer, and the consequent argument led to their permanent estrangement.

Sonny continued to play, mainly as a freelance drummer, working with musicians such as Johnny Hodges, Red Allen, J. C. Higginbotham, Tyree Glenn, and was there for the iconic 1958 Art Kane black-and-white photograph A Great Day In Harlem. He was part of a tribute to Ellington in 1974, which achieved great success throughout the United States.

Never recording as a leader, he was quite active as a sideman recording with not only seven albums with Duke but another twelve albums with Johnny Hodges, Bernard Addison, Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, Lionel Hampton, Lonnie Johnson, Brooks Kerr, Oscar Pettiford, Rex Stewart, Victoria Spivey, and Josh White.

Drummer Sonny Greer , best known for his work with Duke Ellington, passed away of a heart attack on March 23, 1982 in Lenox Hill, on the upper East side of Manhattan.

More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Anthony Tillmon Williams was born of African, Portuguese, and Chinese descent on December 12, 1945 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied with drummer Alan Dawson at an early age, and began playing professionally at the age of 13 with saxophonist Sam Rivers. Saxophonist Jackie McLean hired Williams when he was 16.

At 17 Williams gained attention when he joined Miles Davis in what was later dubbed Davis’s Second Great Quintet. A vital element of the group, his playing helped redefine the role of the jazz rhythm section through the use of polyrhythms and metric modulation.

He recorded his first two albums as leader at nineteen for the Blue Note label, Life Time in 1964) and Spring in 1965.. He also recorded as a sideman for the label including, in 1964, Out to Lunch! with Eric Dolphy and Point of Departure with Andrew Hill.

By 1969, he had formed his trio, the Tony Williams Lifetime, with John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Young on organ. Lifetime was a pioneering band of the fusion movement. Disbanding the group, in 1975 he put together a band he called The New Tony Williams Lifetime, featuring bassist Tony Newton, pianist Alan Pasqua, and English guitarist Allan Holdsworth, which recorded two albums for Columbia Records.^.

In mid-1976, Tony reunited with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Wayne Shorter. Freddie Hubbard replaced Miles Davis who was in the midst of a six-year hiatus. The resulting record was later released as V.S.O.P. and the group toured for several years and produced a series of live albums released under the name V.S.O.P. or V.S.O.P.: The Quintet.

1979 saw  Williams, McLaughlin and bassist Jaco Pastorius united for a one-time performance at the Havana Jazz Festival. This trio came to be known as the Trio of Doom. In 1985, returning to Blue Note he released six albums through 1993, playing his compositions almost exclusively ubtil he left Blue Note for the final time.

He lived and taught in the San Francisco Bay Area, was one of the pioneers of jazz fusion, and was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1986. On February 20, 1997 he checked into Seton Medical Center in Daly City, California, suffering from stomach pain. Three days later, while recuperating from gallbladder surgery, drummer Tony Williams passed away of a heart attack at 51 on February 23, 1997.

More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

John “Jack” Purvis was born in Kokomo, Indiana on December 11, 1906 and became uncontrollable after his mother’s death in 1912. This resulted in being sent to a reform school, but while there, he discovered that he had an uncanny musical ability, and soon became proficient enough to play both the trombone and trumpet professionally. Leaving the reformatory he continued his high school education, while playing paying gigs on the side. One of the earliest jobs he had as a musician was with a band led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Not long afterward, he worked with the dance band of Hal Denman.

After high school he worked in Indiana for a time then went to Lexington, Kentucky where he played with the Original Kentucky NightHawks. Around this time he learned to fly planes. In 1926 he was with Bud Rice and toured New England. The remainder of 1926 and the beginning of 1927 was with Whitey Kaufman’s Original Pennsylvanians. For a short time he played trumpet with Arnold Johnson’s orchestra, and by July 1928 he traveled to France with George Carhart’s band. A brush with the law forced him to return to New York City in 1928.

From 1929 on he joined Hal Kemp’s band and recorded with Kemp, Smith Ballew, Ted Wallace, Rube Bloom, the California Ramblers, and Roy Wilson’s Georgia Crackers. He led a couple of racially mixed recording sessions including the likes of J.C. Higginbotham, and Adrian Rollini. He worked with the Dorsey Brothers, Fletcher Henderson, Fred Waring, Charlie Barnet. the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra.

Moving to Los Angeles, California he found success with radio broadcasting, worked with the George Stoll Orchestra as a writer, and arranged for Warner Bros. Studios. He composed Legends of Haiti for a one hundred and ten piece orchestra.

Arrested in Texas in 1937, he spent a total of nine years in prison for robbery and breaking parole. After his final release he worked at non-musical careers which included working as a chef, aviator, carpenter, radio repairman and a mercenary. One of the earliest trumpeters to incorporate the innovations pioneered by Louis Armstrong in the late 1920s.

His mental stability was always in question, having attempted suicide on several occasions. Trumpeter Jack Purvis, who played trombone, harp, andcomposed Dismal Dan and Down Georgia Way, passed away on March 30, 1962.

More Posts: arranger,harp,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trombone,trumpet

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Irving Fazola was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 10, 1912 and receiving the nickname “Fazola”, he used it as his last name. Influenced early by Leon Roppolo, he was playing professionally by age 15. He worked with Sharkey Bonano, Candy Candido, Armand Hug, and Louis Prima. He joined the Ben Pollack band when it came throughNew Orleans and performed with it in Chicago, Illinois and New York City.

After brief time with Glenn Miller and Gus Arnheim, Fazola became a member of the Bob Crosby band in 1938. He achieved some fame with this band, ranking as top clarinetist in the DownBeat magazine polls of 1940 and 1941. After leaving Crosby, he worked in bands in Chicago, New York, and New Orleans, including time with George Brunies at the Famous Door, before settling in New Orleans in 1943.

A heavy drinker, which contributed to his weight and failing health, clarinetist Irving Fazola, who influenced Pete Fountain, passed away of a heart attack at 36 on March 20, 1949.

More Posts: clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,music