Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lou Stein was born on April 22, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1942 he had joined Ray McKinley’s band in 1942. While serving military service he played with Glenn Miller’s Army Airforce Band stateside during World War II but never went overseas.
After the war, he worked with Charlie Ventura in 1946 and 1947 and became a session musician. Lou performed with the Lawson-Haggart Band, Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Louie Bellson, Red Allen, Coleman Hawkins, and Lester Young.
Recording as a bandleader, in 1957 Stein had a U.S. Top 40 hit with Almost Paradise, which peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. His cover version of Got a Match made the Cashbox Top 60 in 1958. His most famous composition was East of Suez.
He played with Joe Venuti and Flip Phillips from 1969 to 1972. From 1954 to 1994 he recorded sixteen albums as a leader and through the Fifties, he recorded with Louis Bellson, Woody Herman, Lee Konitz, Joe Newman, Charlie Parker, Cootie Williams. Pianist and composer Lou Stein, who was comfortable in swing, bop, Dixieland, and commercial settings, passed away on December 11, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cecilia Wennerström was born on April 21, 1947 in Stockholm, Sweden and studied saxophone at the music academies in Malmoe and Gothenburg. In 1997 she released her first self-titled album as a leader, Cecilia Wennerström/Minor Stomp on the Four Leaf Records label. Joining her were Ann Blom on piano, Filip Augustson on bass, and Henrik Wartel on drums. Enjoying the small group format she explores classical, bebop/cool-oriented jazz.
Cecilia is currently a member of the Wennerstrom Larsson Explicity with her husband Sven Larsson, who released their first album Tussilago in September 2011. She is also part of the octet LARS 8 which plays compositions by Lars Gullin and other Swedish jazz icons.
In 2013 she released her fourth solo compact disc Lydian Mars with pianist Maria Kvist, bassist Filip Augustson, and drummer Jonas Holgersson. The band on the recording session evolved into the Cecilia Wennerström New Quartet with Chris Montgomery replacing Holgersson on drums.
Saxophonist, flutist, and composer Cecilia Wennerström continues to compose, perform, and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billy James born William James on April 20, 1936 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He first came on the jazz scene in the Fifties when he began working with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, with the bandleader thinking the 15-year-old James was already playing at professional standards. He would then go to work with Booker Ervin. In the early 1960s with played and recorded with James Moody, Candido Camero, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Don Patterson, and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis.
With Patterson, he frequently recorded as a duo, and James led his own groups in the latter half of the 1960s. He worked further with Stitt during this time as well as with Eric Kloss. Further associations also include Eddie Harris, Houston Person, Grant Green, and Pat Martino.
Billy’s most illustrious performances including the Patterson side righteously titled Boppin’ and Burnin’ and even better, the Boss Tenors in Orbit! sessions in which Stitt duels with Ammons.
Drummer Billy James, whose most distinctive aspect of drumming is an extremely well-disposed shuffle that he seems able to reinvent endlessly, chorus after chorus, passed away on November 20, 2009.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Piers Lawrence was born on April 19th in New York City, raised in San Francisco, California and Switzerland, where he attended the Conservatoire de Musique de Lausanne and studied guitar and composition.
An alum of the Harlem-based, Jazz-Mobile Orchestra and studying with Barry Galbraith and Ted Dunbar, he has played Broadway shows including Guys and Dolls, Dancin’, Hubie, and Your Arms Too Short to Box With God, and has toured and recorded with R&B hitmakers Wilson Picket, The Main Ingredient, Esther Phillips, Phyllis Hyman, The Caribbean All-Stars and Merl Saunders.
He has recorded sessions and shared the jazz stages with many great musicians including Narada Michael Walden, Sammy Figueroa, Hiram Bullock, Lou Soloff, Jerry Garcia, John Handy, Steve Kimock, Armando Peraza, Bob Weir, Vince Welnick, Reuben Wilson, Jimmy Heath, and Tommy Flanagan.
Being based in Manhattan, the jazz guitarist continues to lead the Piers Lawrence Quartet, manage his record label, JazzNet Media, that produced his internationally acclaimed recording Stolen Moments, and produces independent projects and ambient music for film and television.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anthony C. Mottola was born on April 18, 1918 in Kearny, New Jersey. He started out learning to play the banjo, then took up the guitar and had his first guitar lessons from his father. In 1936 he toured with an orchestra led by George Hall, marking the beginning of his professional life.
His first recordings were duets with guitarist Carl Kress. In 1945 he collaborated with accordionist John Serry Sr. in a recording of Leone Jump for Sonora Records which was played in jukeboxes throughout the United States. Tony’s only charted single as a soloist was This Guy’s In Love With You, which reached No. 22 on the Billboard magazine Easy Listening Top 40 in the summer of 1968.
Mottola worked often on television, appearing as a regular on shows hosted by vocalist Perry Como and comedian Sid Caesar and as music director for the 1950s series Danger. From 1958–1972, he was a member of The Tonight Show Orchestra led by Skitch Henderson.
He composed music for the TV documentary Two Childhoods, which was about Vice President Hubert Humphrey and writer James Baldwin, and won an Emmy Award for his work. In 1980, Mottola began performing with Frank Sinatra, often in duets, appearing at Carnegie Hall and the White House. He retired from the music business in 1988 but kept playing at home almost every day.
Guitarist Tony Mottola, who released dozens of albums as a leader, passed away in Denville, New Jersey on August 9, 2004.
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