Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bernard “Bunny” Brunel was born in Nice, France on March 2, 1950 and took up the electric and acoustic bass when he was fifteen. A self taught musician, he did attend for a time a classical conservatory to learn the basic technique of playing with the bow on the bass.
Brunel is a founding member of the jazz fusion band CAB along with Dennis Chambers, and Tony MacAlpine. Since their formation in 2000, they have released four studio albums and two live albums. Their second album, CAB 2, received a nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album at the 2002 Grammy Awards. Other musicians who have been members of CAB include Patrice Rushen, Virgil Donati, David Hirschfelder, and Brian Auger.
Bassist Bunny Brunel, who has played with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter, and who has recorded ten albums as a leader, is involved in musical instrument design, film and television scoring, continues to perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
De Priest E. B. Wheeler was born on March 1, 1903 in Kansas City, Missouri and played trumpet and mellophone in The Knights of Pythias Band while attending Lincoln High School. With the band he journeyed to St. Louis, Missouri in 1917. Returning to Kansas City he worked in a local dance hall for a year, before becoming a member of the resident band at the Chauffeur’s Club in St. Louis in 1918.
He was with Dave Lewis’s Jazz Boys in Kansas City, then toured with a circus band until 1922. Joining the Wilson Robinson Syncopators in St. Louis in 1923, he toured the Pantages Circuit from Chicago, Illinois to California with that band. The band eventually settled in New York in early 1925 where they were renamed Andy Preer And His Cotton Club Orchestra. Subsequently they worked under the leadership of violinist Andrew Freer until his death in 1927. Later on the group became known as The Missourians, and when Cab Calloway joined as a singer in 1928, from 1930 on he took over and they became Cab’s band.
Wheeler remained with Calloway until 1940, touring Europe in 1934. He worked for the postal authorities for many years, but continued to play part-time with bands and orchestras through the 1950s. Trombonist De Preist Wheeler passed away April 10, 1998 in St. Albans, Queens, New York.
More Posts: history,instrumental,jazz,music,trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Earnest Green was born on February 28, 1925 in Kansas City, Kansas and learned to play the alto saxophone at age ten, picking up the clarinet when he was twelve. He eventually learned to play most varieties of saxophone, clarinet, and flute.
Serving in the military until 1946, Green began working at a club called Small’s in Kansas City. Relocating to Los Angeles, California in 1947 he enrolled at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Arts, and graduating in 1952 remained on staff as an educator until 1962. He also ran a music education studio on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles for many years.
During his early career Bill played with Gerald Wilson, and began working with Benny Carter in the latter half of the 1950s. From 1959 to 1962 he played in Louie Bellson’s big band, then went to work extensively as a section player in the bands of Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, and Buddy Rich. He would accompany vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Nancy Wilson, and Dionne Warwick.
Through the mid to late Sixties he played the Monterey Jazz Festival with Gil Fuller, worked with Oliver Nelson, and then Blue Mitchell. The 1970s saw him performing or recording with Gene Ammons, the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, and Sarah Vaughan. He continued working with the Capp-Pierce Orchestra in the early 1980s, as well as with Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman, and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.
His most notable recordings are Benny Carter’s Aspects and the Quincy Jones recording of the soundtrack for Roots. Multi-instrumentalist Bill Green, who played most saxophones, clarinet and flute, passed away on July 29, 1996. His personal papers and recordings are archived at University of California, Los Angeles..
More Posts: clarinet,flute,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carl Anderson was born Carlton Earl Anderson on February 27, 1945 in Lynchburg, Virginia, one of 12 children to James and Alberta Anderson. During his junior year of high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as a communications technician for two years. Honorably discharged and returning home he completed high school, graduating in 1965. He went on to sing at military bases across the United States as part of the World Wide Air Force Talent Contest.
Making his way to Washington, D.C. in 1969, he and some friends formed a group called The Second Eagle with Anderson handling the vocals. They covered jazz and rock tunes that included songs from the album Jesus Christ Superstar, released long before the stage production was launched. In 1971, a talent agent from the William Morris Agency saw Anderson perform some songs from the show at St. Stephen’s Church and recognized his potential as a solo performer.
His global popularity and star power came from his role as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar both on Broadway and in the film. He also had rolesin The Black Pearl, The Color Purple, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Cop Rock, Days of Our Lives, and Hill Street Blues.
As a recording artist, Carl was equally prolific, initially signing with Motown Records in 1972, working with Stevie Wonder on his Songs in the Key of Life double album, as well as numerous others. While working the club circuit in Los Angeles, California he was noticed by and signed to Columbia Records and released four albums on their Epic label. He would go on to perform duets with Gloria Loring, Angie Bofill, Linda Eder and Nancy Wilson.
His duet with Loring, Friends and Lovers, reached Number 2 on the charts, and endeared Anderson to soap opera fans, after being performed on Days of Our Lives. He also recorded Between You and Me, as the title theme for the film Her Alibi.
In 2003 he had a minor car accident on his way to perform and while being treated for his injuries, doctors discovered that he had leukemia. Soul jazz vocalist and actor Carl Anderson passed away the following year from the illness on February 23, 2004, in Los Angeles, just four days before his 59th birthday.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ray Perry was born on February 25, 1915 in Boston, Massachusetts to a musical family and began playing the violin at a young age, and didn’t pick up the alto saxophone till he was twenty. He organized his first band, the Arabian Knights, in 1932.
Working the bread and butter gigs, he performed with the best in the business from 1935 to 1943, among numerous others, Dean Earl in the Little Harlem Orchestra, Clarence “Chick” Carter Orchestra with Gerald Wilson, then with Joe Nevils band when it masqueraded as the Blanche Calloway Orchestra, before joining the Lionel Hampton band. In the mid-thirties Ray developed a technique of simultaneously singing an octave below his playing as he bowed his violin. Hearing him, bassist Slam Stewart adopted the same technique, except he sang an octave above his playing.
Poor health forced him to return to Boston in late 1942, where he found work with Sherman Freeman, Sabby Lewis, and his fraternal band, the Perry Brothers Orchestra with Joe on tenor saxophonoe and Bey on drums, Performing more frequently on alto saxophone, despite his short career, Perry worked with Shadow Wilson, Illinois Jacquet Vernon Alley, J. C. Heard, Joe Newman, Fred Beckett, Sabby Lewis, Sir Charles Thompson, and Irving Ashby.
Health problems continued to dog him for almost a decade leading to the passing away of violinist and alto saxophonist Ray Perry from kidney disease at age 35 in November 1950 in New York City. However, his final record date was with Illinois Jacquet earlier that year. Some of his best surviving violin work was recorded with a Hampton septet in late 1940.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone,violin