Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Born Mary Louise Tobin on November 14, 1918 in Aubrey, Texas and at age fourteen in 1932 she won a CBS Radio Talent Contest. Following a tour with society dance orchestras in Texas, she joined Art Hicks and his Orchestra in 1934. At that time, Harry James was playing first trumpet in the band and a year later she and James were married.
Tobin brought Frank Sinatra to James’ attention in 1939 after hearing him sing on the radio. James subsequently signed Sinatra to a one-year contract at $75 a week. While she was singing with trumpeter Bobby Hackett at Nick’s in the Village, jazz critic and producer John Hammond heard her and brought Benny Goodman to a performance and soon joined the Goodman band.
Louise went on to record There’ll Be Some Changes Made, Scatterbrain, Comes Love, Love Never Went To College, What’s New? and Blue Orchids. Johnny Mercer wrote Louise Tobin Blues for her while she was with Goodman and was arranged by Fletcher Henderson. In 1940 Tobin recorded Deed I Do and Don’t Let It Get You Down with Will Bradley and His Orchestra.
By 1945 Tobin was recording with Tommy Jones and His Orchestra, Emil Coleman and His Orchestra and through the decade performed and recorded with Skippy Anderson’s Band at the Melodee Club in Los Angeles, and with Ziggy Elman and His Orchestra.
Taking a long hiatus to raise her children, Louise came back in 1962 at the Newport Jazz Festival, met second husband Peanuts Hucko, acquired a regular gig at Blues Alley on Washington, DC and moved to Denver, Colorado and opened the Navarre Club as co-owners. They would go on to lead and sing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, touring worldwide with Louise singing and recording various numbers with the band.
In 2008 Tobin donated her extensive collection of original musical arrangements, press clippings, programs, recordings, playbills and photographs to create the Tobin-Hucko Jazz Collection at Texas A&M University-Commerce.
Give A Gift Of Jazz – Share
More Posts: vocal
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ari Hoenig was born November 13, 1973 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a vocalist father and violinist mother. He was exposed to classical and other music at an early age, playing piano and violin. He went on to explore rock and metal drums as a teenager before settling into jazz.
Hoenig attended Pennsylvania Governor’s School of the Arts in summer of 1990, followed by attending the University of North Texas College of Music for three years and was a member of the highly regarded One O’Clock Lab Band.
Relocating to New York he began playing with Shirley Scott and went on to record with Mike Stern, Kenny Werner, Richard Bona, Dave Liebman, Chris Potter, Joshua Redman, Tigran Hamasyan, Ethan Iverson, Mark Turner, Fred Hersch, Snarky Puppy, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Pat Martino, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny and many others.
Ari has performed at the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival alongside Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Chucho Valdes, and has appeared with his Punk Bop Band with Jonathan Kreisberg and Gilad Hekselman. Drummer, composer and educator Ari Hoenig continues to record, perform and tour.
Inspire A Young Mind
More Posts: drums
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lou Blackburn was born on November 12, 1922 in Rankin, Pennsylvania. Performing mainly in the swing genre, his adaptability lent his trombone to pursue several other genres including the West Coast jazz, soul jazz and mainstream mediums.
During the 1950s Lou played swing with Lionel Hampton and also with Charlie Ventura. In the early 1960s he began performing with Duke Ellington’s big band and with musicians like trumpeter Cat Anderson, Horace Tapscott, Melvin Moore, Red Callender and Bobby Bryant. He performed sideman duties on the album Mingus at Monterey with Charles Mingus. During this period he did some crossover work with The Beach Boys and The Turtles. He was also a part of the recording session for the film The Manchurian Candidate
Blackburn recorded as a leader in 1963, Jazz Frontier and Two Note Samba for Imperial Records and both have been reissued by Blue Note as a compilation The Complete Imperial Sessions. He also recorded Perception, Brass Bag, Jean-Bleu and Ode To Taras. As a sideman he worked with June Christy, Gil Fuller and The Three Sounds recording for Capitol, Pacific Jazz and Blue Note record labels. Trombonist Lou
His decision to live abroad moved him to Germany where he toured very successfully out of Germany and Switzerland with his ethno jazz band Mombasa that had strong African content and players. He also put together an ensemble called the Lou Blackburn International Quartet that had a more progressive feel. Trombonist Lou Blackburn passed away on June 7, 1990 in Berlin, Germany.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
More Posts: trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marlene Ver Planck was born Marlene Paula Pampinella on November 11, 1933 in Newark, New Jersey. She grew up listening to Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald on the radio and started singing at age 19., working with Tex Beneke and Charlie Spivak in the Fifties, the latter band is where she met her husband, composer, arranger and conductor Billy Ver Planck.
Her first big break came in 1955 at the age of 21 when she teamed up with pianist Hank Jones, flutist Herbie Mann, trumpeter Joe Wilder, bassist Wendell Marshall and drummer Kenny Clarke and recorded I Think Of You With Every Breath I Take for Savoy Records. Singing went on to sing with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in New York City and after Tommy’s death pursued studio work with Sinatra, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Blood Sweat & Tears and Kiss.
Marlene’s voice was recognizable by millions of people outside the jazz world doing jingles in the ’60s: “Weekends were made for Michelob… Yeah!”, “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!” and “Mmm good, mm-mm good, that’s what Campbell’s Soups are/mm mm good.” After thousands of commercial jingles and hours and hours of studio session work in New York, she decided to settle down with her husband in their house in Clifton, New Jersey and began performing and recording together.
They would go on to work with composer Loonis McGlohon, Alec Wilder, Mel Torme, Eileen Farrell, Glenn Miller Orchestra, George Shearing and Marian McPartland among others. Over the course of her career she recorded two-dozen albums and appeared on several television shows.
Take A Dose On The Road
More Posts: vocal
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Andrew Charles Cyrille was born on November 10, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York into a Haitian family. He began studying science at St. John’s University but was already playing jazz in the evenings and soon switched his studies to the Juilliard School. His first drum teachers were fellow Brooklyn-based drummers Willie Jones and Lenny McBrown. Through them, he met Max Roach, nonetheless he became a disciple of Philly Joe Jones.
His first professional engagement was as an accompanist of singer Nellie Lutcher, had an early recording session with Coleman Hawkins and trumpeter Ted Curson introduced him to pianist Cecil Taylor when he was 18. He joined the Taylor unit in 1964 and stayed for about 10 years and eventually performed drum duos with Milford Graves.
In addition to recording a dozen albums as a bandleader, he has recorded and/or performed with David Murray, Irene Schweizer, Marilyn Crispell, Carla Bley, Butch Morris, Reggie Workman, Oliver Lake, Geri Allen, Ahmad Abdul-Malik, Billy Bang, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Walt Dickerson, Charlie Haden, David Murray, Horace Tapscott and the list goes on.
Avant-garde drummer Andrew Cyrille is currently a member of the group, Trio 3, with Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge
More Posts: drums