Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gene Sedric, born Eugene Hall Cedric on June 17, 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri into a family where his father played ragtime piano. He played with Charlie Creath in his hometown and then with Fate Marable, Dewey Jackson, Ed Allen, and Julian Arthur.
Joining Sam Wooding’s Orchestra in 1925 he toured Europe with him until 1931 when the unit dissolved. During his time in Europe he recorded with Alex Hyde. When he returned to New York City he played with Fletcher Henderson and Alex Hill, before joining Fats Waller’s Rhythm in 1934, where he remained to 1942. When Waller went on solo tours Sedric found work gigging alongside Mezz Mezzrow in 1937 and Don Redman from 1938 to 1939).
Sedric put together his own group in 1943, prior to playing with Phil Moore in 1944 and Hazel Scott in 1945. He put together another ensemble from 1946–51, playing in New York City. His later associations through the late 1940s into the early 60s include time with Pat Flowers, Bobby Hackett, Jimmy McPartland, Mezzrow again, Conrad Janis, and Dick Wellstood. He recorded sparingly as a leader in 1938, 1946, and with Mezzrow in 1953.
Clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Gene Sedric, who acquired the nickname “Honey Bear” in the 1930s because of his large camel hair coat, passed away on April 3, 1963 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lin Halliday was born on June 16, 1936 in De Queen, Arkansas and was raised in Little Rock, where he played the saxophone and clarinet in school. After he moved to Los Angeles, California in his teens he began playing professionally, performing with saxophonist Joe Maini.
A move to New York City in 1958, Nashville, Tennessee in 1966, and Chicago, Illinois in 1980, his style was influenced by the musical cultures of all three cities. Halliday made his debut album, Delayed Exposure, for the Chicago jazz label Delmark Records in 1991. His sophomore album the same year, East of the Sun and Where or When in 1993 with saxophonist Ira Sullivan were well received by the Chicago jazz community.
He became a staple attraction at many Chicago jazz clubs including the Green Mill, the Bop Shop, Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase, and the Get Me High Lounge. His performance on trumpeter Brad Goode’s 1998 album Shock of the New won him greater admiration with the Chicago jazz scene. Lin was also featured on the 1995 album Stablemates with Chicago saxophonist Eric Alexander.
Saxophonist Lin Halliday, who recorded five albums as a leader and one as a sideman with Cecil Payne all on Delmark, passed away on January 25, 2000.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paul Mares was born on June 15, 1900 in New Orleans, Louisiana and was self-taught on the cornet and trumpet and picked up his early experience laying the riverboat Capitol playing with the Tom Brown Band. Leaving his hometown in 1919 he moved to Chicago, Illinois and worked with Ragbaby Stevens before freelancing around the city.
In 1921 Paul formed the Friars Society Orchestra, a group that prominently featured trombonist George Brunies and clarinetist Leon Rappolo. From 1922-23, the band recorded for Gennett Records and became one of the best-regarded bands in the city. The band, which broke up in 1924, included up-and-coming jazz musicians, including the members of the Austin High School Gang and Bix Beiderbecke.
Mares who was influenced by King Oliver, played in New York for a short time, went back to New Orleans the following year and led a couple more sessions. In 1934, a move to Chicago the following year had him making a brief comeback and leading a recording session that resulted in four titles before he retired again.
By 1935 Mares he was playing trumpet and fronting a recording session with his band called Paul Mares and his Friars Society Orchestra. The name referred to the Friar’s Inn club where the Rhythm Kings had first played in Chicago. The 1935 band included the white New Orleanian and N.O.R.K. veteran Santo Pecora on trombone, the black New Orleanian Omar Simeon on clarinet and the Chicagoan altoist Boyce Brown, as well as George Wettling on drums, pianist Jess Stacey, bassist Pat Pattison, and guitarist Marvin Saxbe.
He then largely retired from playing to work in the family fur business, and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings passed into history. He ran a barbeque restaurant, did defense plant work during World War II, and returned to music in 1945, leading a final band from 1945-48 that unfortunately never recorded. Cornetist and trumpeter Paul Mares passed away on August 18, 1949 in Chicago.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marcus Miller, born William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. on June 14, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York and raised in a musical family. Classically trained as a clarinetist, he also plays keyboards, saxophone and guitar. He began to work regularly in New York City, eventually playing bass and writing music for jazz flutist Bobbi Humphrey and keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith.
Spending 15 years as a session musician, he arranged and produced frequently, was a member of the Saturday Night Live band from 1979 to 1981, and co-wrote Aretha Franklin’s Jump To It along with Luther Vandross. He has played bass on over 500 recordings, appearing on over 500 albums by such artists as Herbie Hancock, The Crusaders, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Frank Sinatra, George Benson, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Joe Walsh, Jean-Michel Jarre, Grover Washington Jr., Donald Fagen, Bill Withers, Bernard Wright, Kazumi Watanabe, Chaka Khan, LL Cool J, and Flavio Sala.
He won the Most Valuable Player award given by NARAS to recognize studio musicians three years in a row and was subsequently awarded Player Emeritus status and retired from eligibility. In the nineties, Miller began to write his own music and make his own records, putting a band together and touring regularly.
Between 1988 and 1990 he appeared regularly both as a musical director and as the house band bass player in the Sunday Night Band during two seasons of Sunday Night on NBC late-night television, hosted by David Sanborn.
As a composer, Miller co-wrote and produced several songs on the Miles Davis album Tutu, including its title track. He also composed Chicago Song for David Sanborn and co-wrote ‘Til My Baby Comes Home, It’s Over Now, For You To Love, and Power of Love for Luther Vandross and wrote Da Butt, which was featured in Spike Lee’s School Daze.
Miller hosts a jazz history show called Miller Time with Marcus Miller, is a film score composer, was nominated and won several Grammy Awards. Bassist Marcus Miller continues to perform, record and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Philip L. Bodner was born June 13, 1917 in Waterbury, Connecticut and played in the Forties and 1950s as a sideman for studio recordings in New York City. He played on jazz sessions with Benny Goodman, with Miles Davis and Gil Evans in 1958.
Organizing The Brass Ring, a group modeled after Herb Alpert, in the mid-1960s they had popular success. Bodner also played with Oliver Nelson and J.J. Johnson during that decade. His associations in the 1970s included Oscar Peterson, Yusef Lateef, Peanuts Hucko, Wild Bill Davison, Ralph Sutton and he also played the signature piccolo part on the disco hit The Hustle by Van McCoy. Other work in the 1970s included playing with Ralph Sutton and Johnny Varro, working with Mingus Epitaph, and arranging Louie Bellson’s tribute to Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige.
The 1980s saw him working in a swing style with Marty Napoleon, Mel Lewis, George Duvivier, Maxine Sullivan, and Barbara Carroll. He released an album under his own name, Jammin’ at Phil’s Place, on Jazzmania Records in 1990, with Milt Hinton, Bobby Rosengarden, and Derek Smith as sidemen.
Multi-instrumentalist and studio musician Philip Bodner, active in jazz and popular music idioms. Best known as a reedist, he played clarinet, saxophone, oboe, English horn, piccolo, flute, conductor and arranger passed away on February 24, 2008 at age 90 in New York City.
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