Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Alvin Leroy Fielder Jr was born November 23, 1935 in Meridian, Mississippi to a mother who played the violin and piano and a father who played the cornet and was a pharmacist by profession. His brother William became a trumpeter. He initially learned the piano as a young child, but stopped and did not regain an interest in music until he was 12 when he heard a Max Roach record. He took drum lessons from Ed Blackwell while studying pharmacology at Xavier University of Louisiana, and then continued his degree at Texas Southern University. He did all this while maintaining his musical development by taking lessons with local drummers and performing at night. He went on to complete his pharmacology studies with a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In Chicago, Illinois he played with Sun Ra during 1959 and 1960. Encouraged by fellow musicians Muhal Richard Abrams and Beaver Harris, he became more experimental in his playing and went on to be a charter member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The AACM’s first released recording featured him on Roscoe Mitchell’s Sound. In the mid-to-late 1960s, while working part-time as a pharmacist, Alvin played in his own trio with Fred Anderson and bassist/cellist Lester Lashley.

1969 saw he returned home to Mississippi where he took responsibility for managing the family business, becoming involved in political activism, and continued to pursue his passion for music. In 1971 he met John Reese and helped develop the Black Arts Music Society (BAMS). Fielder was instrumental in bringing many AACM and other musicians to Mississippi. In 1975, he began working with Kidd Jordan in what became the Improvisational Arts band, which featured various musicians over three decades and appeared at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival every year from 1975 to 2008. In 1995, he participated as a founding faculty member in the Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp.

He recorded twenty-seven albums with Ahmed Abdullah, Charles Brackeen, Damon Smith, and Dennis Gonzalez, and continued exploring free jazz in the 1990s with Joel Futterman, Kidd Jordan, and others, and toured with Andrew Lamb. He was awarded the Resounding Vision Award by Nameless Sound in Houston, Texas. Drummer Alvin Fielder passed away of complications from congestive heart failure and pneumonia, in Jackson, Mississippi on January 5, 2019.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Paul D. “Polo” Barnes was born on November 22, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the brother of Emile Barnes. He attended St. Paul Lutheran College and began playing alto saxophone in 1919. He and Lawrence Marrero formed the Original Diamond Band, later known as the Young Tuxedo Band.

In 1922 he was with Kid Rena, then the Maple Leaf Orchestra in 1923, and Papa Celestin’s Original Tuxedo Band. Later that year; Celestin’s group recorded his composition My Josephine, which became quite popular. He went on to play with Chick Webb in 1927 and with King Oliver three times between 1927 and 1935. He toured with Jelly Roll Morton in 1928-29.

In 1932-33 he led his own band then through that decade he played with Chester Zardis and Kid Howard. He played in Algiers, Louisiana in a Navy band during World War II, then returned to work with Celestin from 1946 to 1951. The Fifties saw him moving to California and left music, however, upon his return to New Orleans in 1959, he played with Paul Barbarin in 1960. but from 1962-65 joined the Young Men from New Orleans band that played on a riverboat at Disneyland.

Returning once again to New Orleans in 1964 he played at Preservation Hall and Dixieland Hall. While touring Europe in 1973-74, poor health ended his career in 1977. Clarinetist and saxophonist Polo Barnes, a mainstay of the New Orleans jazz scene of the 1920s and 1930s, passed away on April 3, 1981 in his hometown.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Peter Warren was born November 21, 1935 in Hempstead, New York and learned to play the cello as a child, studying the instrument formally, giving a recital at Carnegie Hall in 1953. After studying at Juilliard School, he went on to play with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra before switching to double-bass and studying jazz under Chuck Israels.

From 1965, for two years Peter was Dionne Warwick’s touring bassist, and following this, he played with David Izenzon in the New York Bass Revolution. Working in Belgium in the early Seventies, he played with Chick Corea, John Surman, Rolf Kuhn, Joachim Kuhn, Jean-Luc Ponty, Don Cherry, Terumasa Hino, Masahiko Sato, Albert Mangelsdorff, John Tchicai, Anthony Braxton, and Tomasz Stańko.

Settling once again back in the United States in 1974, he played with Jack DeJohnette and Carla Bley, and in 1976 he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in cello composition. The early Eighties saw him working with Mike Stern, Ken Vandermark, and again with DeJohnette. He recorded three albums as a leader Bass Is on Enja Records in 1970, Solidarity for JAPO Records, in 1981, and Bowed Metal Music in 2001. Cellist and bassist Peter Warren continues to perform.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Skeeter Best was born Clifton Best was born on November 20, 1914 in Kinston, North Carolina. From 1935 to 1940 he played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania recording with Slim Marshall and Erskine Hawkins. In 1940, he joined the Earl Hines Orchestra, playing with him until he joined the U.S. Navy in 1942.

After his Naval discharge, he played with Bill Johnson from 1945 to 1949. He toured East Asia with Oscar Pettiford in 1951 and 1952, forming his own trio in during the decade. He did a critically acclaimed session with Ray Charles and Milt Jackson in 1957 called Soul Brothers^.

In 1958, he recorded with Mercer Ellington and taught in New York City. He also recorded with Harry Belafonte, Etta Jones, Nellie Lutcher, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson, Paul Quinichette, Jimmy Rushing, Sonny Stitt, Charles Thompson, and Lucky Thompson.

From 1959 to 1980 he recorded twenty-six albums as a sideman with Eugenie Baird, Aretha Franklin, Bennie Green & Paul Quinichette, Lionel Hampton, Erskine Hawkins, Earl Hines, Marva Josie, Mahalia Jackson, Milt Jackson, Ray Charles, Etta Jones, Frankie Laine, Buck Clayton, Ellis Larkins, Howard McGhee, The Modern Jazz Sextet, Mel Powell, Ike Quebec, Freddie Roach, Jimmy Rushing, Charles Thompson, Lucky Thompson, Cootie Williams. Guitarist Skeeter Best passed away on May 27, 1985, New York City.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Keg Johnson was born Frederic Homer Johnson on November 19, 1908 in Dallas, Texas. His father was a choir director and he and his younger brother, Budd began their musical careers singing and playing first with their father and later with Portia Pittman, daughter of Booker T. Washington. They played in Dallas-area bands like the Blue Moon Chasers, then with Ben Smith’s Music Makers, eventually performing with Gene Coy and The Happy Black Aces.

Playing a variety of instruments but most noted as a trombonist, around 1928, in Kansas City, Missouri they played in several bands but by 1930 Keg left for Chicago, Illinois to play with Louis Armstrong, recording his first solo on Armstrong’s Basin Street Blues album. His move to New York City in 1933 Keg played with Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, and Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club, remaining with Cab for 15 years.

Leaving New York City for Los Angeles, California he briefly changed careers renovating houses. During the 1950s he returned to New York City where he and his brother reunited and recorded the album Let’s Swing. In 1961, he began playing with Ray Charles and was still in his band when trombonist Keg Johnson passed away in Chicago on November 8, 1967.

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