Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pierre Michelot was born on March 3, 1928 in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, France. He studied piano from 1936 until 1938 when he switched to bass at the age of sixteen.
Throughout his career he performed and recorded with Rex Stewart, Coleman Hawkins, Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli, Don Byas, Thelonious Monk, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Zoot Sims, Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker and numerous others.
Michelot was a member of the Jacques Loussier Trio, known for the Play Bach album series. In 1957 he recorded the landmark album Afternoon In Paris with John Lewis and Sacha Distel Septet. As a leader he recorded Round About A Bass with an orchestra on the Uni Jazz France label.
Together with Miles Davis, he was responsible for the critically acclaimed soundtrack of Louis Malle’s film Ascenseur pour l’echafaud and also appeared as an unnamed bass player in the movie Round Midnight.
In later life, bebop and hard bop double bassist Pierre Michelot suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and passed away on July 3, 2005.
Give A Gift Of Jazz – Share
More Posts: bass
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Red Saunders was born Theodore Dudley Saunders on March 2, 1912 in Memphis, Tennessee. Early in his career he played in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois playing with Stomp King. For a time, he worked with Tiny Parham at the Savoy Ballroom in Chicago.
In 1937, the Club DeLisa gave Saunders control of the house band, where he remained almost uninterrupted until the club’s closure in 1958. Among his sidemen were Leon Washington, Porter Kilbert, Earl Washington, Sonny Cohn, Ike Perkins, Riley Hampton, singer Joe Williams and Mac Easton.
Among the arrangers he employed were Johnny Pate and Sun Ra. Despite his regular gig and disinclination to go on the road, Red played with Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman, and recorded with Big Joe Turner.
He continued to lead a band at Chicago’s Regal Theater into the Sixties, and played with Little Brother Montgomery and Art Hodes at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in the 1970s. Drummer and bandleader Red Saunders, who also played vibraphone and timpani, passed away on March 5, 1981 in Chicago.
Inspire A Young Mind
More Posts: drums
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gene Perla was born on March 1, 1940 in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. He studied piano at Berklee School of Music and Boston Conservatory before switching to bass.
In 1969 Perla played with Woody Herman, as well as Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Jeremy Steig, Elvin Jones and Sonny Rollins in the early Seventies.
During the decade Gene founded PM Records and later headed Plug Records and under his leadership the labels recorded Dave Liebman, Elvin Jones, Steve Grossman, Pat La Barbera and Jerry Bergonzi. Forming the Stone Alliance with Grossman and Don Alias in 1975, he continues to perform.
As a sideman he has recorded several albums with Frank Foster, Elvin Jones and Mickey Tucker. Bassist Gene Perla currently teaches at Lehigh University and the New School of Jazz & Contemporary Music.
Dose A Day-Blues Away
More Posts: bass
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Dorsey was born on February 29, 1904 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Known as “JD”, he played trumpet in his youth and appeared on stage with J. Carson McGee’s King Trumpeters in 1913 at age nine. He switched to alto saxophone two years later, then learning to double on the clarinet.
With his brother Tommy playing trombone, he formed Dorsey’s Novelty Six, one of the first jazz bands to broadcast. In 1924 he joined the New York City based California Ramblers with Paul Whiteman and Red Nichols, did freelance radio and recording work throughout the 1920s and joined the Ted Lewis band, with whom he toured Europe.
He went on to work with Rudy Vallee and other bandleaders, continued with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, appeared on seventy-five radio broadcasts, breaking with his brother changed the band to the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra with Bobby Byrne, Ray McKinley, Donald Matteson, Skeets Herfurt, and vocalists Bob Eberly and Kay Weber, later hiring Helen O’Connell.
In the fifties he rejoined his brother under the auspices of Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra featuring Jimmy Dorsey, appeared on Jackie Gleason’s show and got their own weekly variety program Stage Show, produced by Gleason.
Jimmy took over leadership of the orchestra after Tommy’s death but only survived a few months passing away from throat cancer at age 53 in New York City on June 12, 1957.
Jimmy received a gold record for the Herst/Sharpe composition So Rare, made Latin flavored records that topped the charts in 1941, appeared in several movies including their own bio-pic The Fabulous Dorseys, composed the classic tune I’m Glad There Is You, as well as a host of others collaborating with Jimmy Van Heusen, Sonny Burke, Frankie Trumbauer and Babe Russin to name a few.
Saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey is considered one of the most important and influential alto saxophone players of the Big Band and Swing era, had several #1 hits, honored with a U.S. postal stamp, had his recording of Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil) into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Big Band and Swing Hall of Fame.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roseanna Elizabeth Vitro was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas on February 28, 1951 and began singing at an early age, drawing inspiration from various musical genres like gospel from her mother’s side of the family, rock and R&B, theatre and classical. During the 1950s, her father owned a nightclub in Hot Springs called The Flamingo and he loved Dean Martin’s music and opera. . By the 1960s, Vitro was determined to be a rock singer.
She was exposed to jazz and it became her genre of choice after moving to Houston in the 1970s. It was there that Ray Sulienger discovered her and voice coached her and presented her to the Houston Jazz Community. Vitro sang frequently with tenor Arnett Cobb.
She worked for two years in Houston’s Green Room with her group Roseanna with Strings and Things, hosted a radio show on KUHF-FM, featuring guests like Cobb. Many jazz greats stopped in and played with Strings and Things, like Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Tommy Flanagan and Keter Betts. Encouraged to dedicate herself to jazz, in 1978 Roseanna moved to New York City with guitarist Scott Hardy and began to study with Professor Gabore Carellia at the Manhattan School of Music.
Vitro started performing with Kenny Werner and Fred Hersch, sat in with and ultimately toured with Lionel Hampton, and appeared at all the major New York jazz clubs. She also appeared with Steve Allen, recorded an album of his compositions and performed and recorded live with Kenny Werner at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Throughout her career she has collaborated and recorded with Christian McBride, Elvin Jones, Gary Bartz, Kevin Mahogany, and David “Fathead” Newman. She has thirteen albums under her belt and a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album for The Music of Randy Newman. She has been inducted into the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame, a U.S. Jazz Ambassador for The John F. Kennedy Center and U.S. State Department, and The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad featured artist with her band JazzIAm.
As an educator Roseanna Vitro has taught Vocal Jazz at State University of New York at Purchase and currently at New Jersey City University and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. As a clinician she holds frequent workshops, clinics and master classes.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge
More Posts: vocal