Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Handy, born George Joseph Hendleman on January 17, 1920 in New York City, where his musical beginnings were fostered under the tutelage of composer Aaron Copland.
He first worked professionally as a swing pianist for Michael Loring in 1938. Soon afterward George was drafted into the United States Army in 1940. Post WWII, from 1944 to 1946 he became a member of the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra, composing and performing on piano. This was during a time when many big bands were transforming their musical tendencies toward bebop. Leaving the orchestra briefly to work for Paramount Studios, he returned to Raeburn quickly. During this period he entered one of his most creative periods, doing arrangements of older standards with a distinctly bebop quality.
A rift between him and Raeburn, just as he was entering his prime, forced him to depart the group. Handy continued to arrange for other musicians in his later career.
Pianist, arranger and composer George Handy, best remembered in retrospect for his bebop arrangements, transitioned in Harris, New York, on January 8, 1997 at the age of 76, from heart disease.
More Posts: arranger,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Vido William Musso born Vito Gugliermo Musso on January 16, 1913 in Palermo, Sicily. He moved with his family to the U.S. in July 1920, having arrived at the Port of New York on the Italian steamship Patria. They lived in Detroit, where Musso started learning to play clarinet. Ten years later, he went to Los Angeles, California and formed a big band with Stan Kenton in 1935.
Musso dropped out the next year to work with Gus Arnheim, Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa. He accompanied Billie Holiday and pianist Teddy Wilson on recordings in the late 1930s. He replaced Bunny Berigan as the leader of his band and tried unsuccessfully at other times during the 1930s and 1940s to be a big band leader. However, most of his career was spent as a sideman.
Returning to Goodman, he was a member of big bands led by Harry James, Woody Herman, and Tommy Dorsey. He went back to play with Kenton during the middle 1940s and having moved to California, he retired around 1975.
Saxophonist Vido Musso, who recorded as a leader in the Forties and Fifties for Savoy, Trilon, Arco, Fantasy, RPM, Crown, and Modern record labels, transitioned on January 9, 1982 in Rancho Mirage, California.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Arthur Shapiro was born on January 15, 1916 in Denver, Colorado, and began on trumpet at age 13, ultimately picking up bass as his prominent instrument at 18. By the late 1930s he was playing with Wingy Manone, Joe Marsala, Eddie Condon, and Chu Berry. From 1938 to 1940 he played with Paul Whiteman, then returned to play with Marsala in addition to working with Bobby Hackett.
Moving to Hollywood, California in the early 1940s, Artie started playing with Jack Teagarden and Joe Sullivan before serving in the United States Army. In 1947 he returned to music, playing with Benny Goodman.
As an accompanist, he worked with, among others, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Anita O’Day, Doris Day, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. His list of recording credits runs to more than 100 during his period of activity, stretching into the late 1960s. Bassist Artie Shapiro transitioned in Los Angeles, California on March 24, 2003.
More Posts: bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alain Mion was born of French extraction on January 14, 1947 in Casablanca, Morocco but was raised in Paris, France.Influenced by Bobby Timmons, Ray Charles and Les McCann, his style varies between jazz, soul jazz and funky music. By the time he was 19 he formed his own trio and performed at the Blue Note. This subsequently led to him gigging at various festivals with Hank Mobley and Philly Joe Jones.
1974 Alain created the jazz funk group Cortex and recorded a dozen albums before embarking upon a career under his own name in 1982, recording to date eleven albums, such as Pheno-Men, Alain Mion in New York recorded with David Binney and Marc Johnson, and Some Soul Food recorded in Stockholm, Sweden with Patrik Boman and Ronnie Gardiner.
In 2008, he emerged with a new group, Alain Mion FunKey Combo with drums, bass and a saxophone section consisting of Italian and French musicians. He reinvented his new group Alain Mion & The New Cortex with the singer Adeline de Lépinay reprising the role originally performed by Mireille Dalbray on the Troupeau Bleu album.
In the United States, Alain Mion and Cortex’s songs have been sampled by several hip-hop artists including but not limited to Madlib, Fat Joe, DJ Day, MF DOOM, Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y, Mellowhype, Tyler The Creator, Rick Ross, and Lupe Fiasco.
Pianist, composer, arranger, and vocalist Alain Mion continues his exploration of the jazz idiom.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,vocal
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edward Burke was born on January 13, 1909 in Fulton, Ohio. Adept at both violin and trombone, he played both professionally in jazz bands. He worked with Walter Barnes late in the 1920s, then with Cassino Simpson and Ed Carry in the early 1930s.
He worked with Kenneth Anderson in 1934 before joining Erskine Tate’s band through the end of 1935. Following a stint with Horace Henderson, Ed then joined Earl Hines’s band in 1938.
The 1940s saw Burke playing with Walter Fuller and Coleman Hawkins and later in the decade he was with first Duke Ellington and then Cootie Williams. In the early 1950s he joined Cab Calloway’s outfit before working with Buddy Johnson a few years later.
By the 1960s and through the 1970s he essentially went into retirement, though he occasionally played with musicians such as Lem Johnson and Wally Edwards. Violinist and trombonist Ed Bure transitioned on April 19, 1988 in East Elmhurst, New York.