Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Britton was born on November 28, 1903 in Birmingham, Alabama and following his student days under the guidance of Fess Whatley, he went to work with Bessie Smith who took him on the road from 1924 through 1926 as a member of her backing group, followed with the Fred Longshaw Orchestra and then the Bill Woods Orchestra. The next year, he jumped to Frank Bunch & the Fuzzy Wuzzies, most likely the most obscure name in the list of the groups he played for.
Settling in New York in the ’30s and immediately got into the fast-paced jazz scene working with Ellsworth Reynold’s Bostonians, Teddy Hill, the band of classic jazz drummer Kaiser Marshall, Charlie Johnson, Edgar Hayes, and the Vernon Andrade Orchestra. In the ’40s: he worked with Benny Carter from 1940-1941 and Dizzy Gillespie, while at the same time collaborating on older styles of jazz.
In the 1940s Britton worked and recorded with Jelly Roll Morton, Jay McShann, and Lucky Millinder in 1942. He would go on to be employed by Wynonie Harris showing up on a half-dozen of her R&B records, and also recorded with Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
He performed and recorded with pianist Earl Hines. The trombonist dabbled into orchestra arrangements and his work in this field is highlighted on the album Breaks, Blues and Boogies by fellow bone-man Vic Dickenson. retired from full-time professional playing in the 1950s, however, he gigged off and on into the Sixties, including a regular stint in a band led by saxophonist Wesley Fagan. Trombonist Joe Britton passed away on August 12, 1972 in New York City, New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wilber Morris was born on November 27, 1937 in Los Angeles, California and began playing drums as a child. Joining the Air Force in 1954, during his tour of duty of eight years switched to the bass. He would play around San Francisco, California in his off times with the likes of Pharoah Sanders and Sonny Simmons. After his discharge, he returned to Los Angeles and played with Arthur Blythe and Horace Tapscott.
Moving back to San Francisco in 1969 his jazz career didn’t really take off until he relocated to New York City nearly a decade later. By 1978 Wilber found work with violinist Billy Bang and saxophonist David Murray, the latter would become a long-standing association well into the ’90s. During the early Eighties, he formed his own trio, Wilber Force, with drummer Denis Charles and saxophonist Charles Tyler with whom he recorded.
He held various teaching positions in addition to recording and performing. He began to work outside Murray’s group and also founded the One World Ensemble. He recorded four albums as a leader and as a sideman another two dozen albums. Morris performed with such musicians as Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Simmons, Alan Silva, Joe McPhee, Horace Tapscott, Butch Morris, Arthur Blythe, Charles Gayle, William Parker, and Bob Ackerman, Charles Tyler, Dennis Charles, Roy Campbell, Avram Fefer, Alfred 23 Harth, Borah Bergman, Bobby Few, and Rashied Ali.
Double bassist and bandleader Wilber Morris, who performed mainly in the free jazz genre and was the brother of the cornetist, composer, and conductor Butch Morris, passed away on August 8, 2002 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kiane Zawadi was born Bernard Atwell McKinney on November 26, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan into a family of ten children, several of whom also became musicians. A trombone and euphonium player, he first worked with Barry Harris and Sonny Stitt in 1951, and then played with Alvin Jackson’s band early in the decade. Toward the middle of the decade, he joined Art Blakey, and by 1959 he moved with Yusef Lateef to New York City.
The 1960s had him playing with Illinois Jacquet, James Moody, and Curtis Fuller. It was later in the Sixties that Bernard adopted the name Kiane Zawadi. By the 1970s he was performing with Archie Shepp, Carlos Garnett, Harold Vick, Frank Foster, Charles Tolliver, Abdullah Ibrahim, and McCoy Tyner.
In 1978, he played in the pit orchestra for Dancin’, a Broadway show. He also appeared at a Charlie Parker tribute at Town Hall in New York City in 1985. Other musicians Zawadi worked with include Mongo Santamaría, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Joe Henderson, and Aretha Franklin.
As a sideman, he has recorded thirty-eight albums with Foster, Slide Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Jordan, Yusef Lateef, Donald Byrd, Pepper Adams, James Moody, Sun Ra, Hank Mobley, Howard McGhee, Freddie Roach, Archie Shepp, Willis “Gator” Jackson, Dollar Brand, McCoy Tyner, Les McCann, Shirley Scott, Jackie DeShannon, Harold Vick, Charles Tolliver, Carlos Garnett, Kenny Vance, Ralph MacDonald, Phyllis Hyman, Cornell Dupree, Grant Green, Mickey Bass, Illinois Jacquet, Rodney Kendrick, Joe Henderson, and Patience Higgins.
Trombonist and euphonium player Kiane Zawadi, one of the few jazz soloists on the latter instrument, at 87 he continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William McLeish Smith was born on November 25, 1910 in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. His first instrument was the clarinet and his education was in chemistry, receiving his degree from Fisk University, an HBCU.
In 1929 Smith became an alto saxophonist for Jimmie Lunceford’s band, becoming one of the main stars in the group. 1940 had him leading his own quintet as a side project. His success with Lunceford had lost its charms by 1942 as he now wanted more pay and less travel. Moving to the Charlie Spivak Orchestra for a year and was in the navy for another year. He then switched to Harry James’s orchestra, where he made more money and stayed with him for seven years.
His next move was to work with Duke Ellington and Billy May. He was also part of the Gene Krupa Trio and can be heard on the 1952 live Verve album The Drum Battle, part of the Jazz at the Philharmonic series. In 1954 he returned to Harry James’s band.
He recorded some three dozen albums as a sideman with Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Barney Kessel, Jimmie Lunceford, Billy May, Rose Murphy, Red Norvo, Andre Previn, Googie René, and Kay Starr among others.
Alto saxophonist Willie Smith, who has been described as one of the triumvirates of great jazz alto saxophonists with Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter before Charlie Parker arrived, passed away of cancer on March 7, 1967 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 56.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harry Barris was born on November 24, 1905 in New York City to Jewish parents. Educated in Denver, Colorado. he became a professional pianist at the age of 14. He led a band that toured the Far East at the age of 17.
The same year, he played the piano and occasionally sang in the Paul Ash Orchestra, while Al Rinker and Bing Crosby became members of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra as a singing duo. However, while the duo was appearing at the vast New York Paramount in 1927, sans microphones, they could not be heard by the audience. They were promptly dropped from the bill. However, a band member who knew Barris suggested that they add him to make a trio and The Rhythm Boys was formed in April 1927.
In 1930, The Rhythm Boys left Whiteman and joined Gus Arnheim’s Cocoanut Grove Orchestra. They made one more recording together, Them There Eyes but the boys decided to quit in 1931 agoing their separate ways. Harry however, changed his mind and returned to the Cocoanut Grove to complete his contract. Joining Arnheim’s singing group The Three Ambassadors.
Barris appeared in 57 films between 1931 and 1950, usually as a band member, pianist or singer. Seven of those films had Bing Crosby as the star. In 1932, Barris signed a contract to star in six shorts for Educational Pictures.
During World War II, along with Joe E. Brown, he went overseas to entertain troops. Having a lifelong drinking problem, sustaining a fall that fractured his hip in 1961, and despite a series of operations, he developed a cancerous tumor. Vocalist, pianist, and composer Harry Barris, who was one of the earliest to utilize scat singing in recordings passed away on December 13, 1962 at the age of 57 in Burbank, California.
Share a dose of a New York City composer to inspire inquisitive minds to learn about musicians whose legacy lends their genius to the jazz catalog…
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