Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Gershwin was born Jacob Bruskin Gershowitz on September 26, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. When his parents bought his older brother Ira a piano, it was the younger George who spent most of his time playing it. He studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody.
He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. In 1919 he scored his first big national hit with his song Swanee, with words by Irving Caesar.
In the late 1910s, Gershwin met songwriter and music director William Daly and the two collaborated on the Broadway musicals Piccadilly to Broadway in 1920 and For Goodness’ Sake in 1922, and jointly composed the score for Our Nell the following year. This was the beginning of a long friendship and collaboration as Daly was a frequent arranger, orchestrator, and conductor of Gershwin’s music.
Moving to Paris, France intending to study with Nadia Boulanger. Refusing him, he subsequently composed An American in Paris, before returning to New York City and writing Porgy and Bess with Ira and DuBose Heyward. Unfortunately for them, it was initially a commercial failure, however, years later it came to be one of the most important American classic operas of the twentieth century.
After the commercial failure of Porgy and Bess, George moved to Hollywood, California. In 1936, with a commission from RKO Pictures, he wrote the music for the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film Shall We Dance. His extended score, which would marry ballet with jazz in a new way, runs over an hour in length. It took Gershwin several months to compose and orchestrate.
Gershwin had a ten-year affair with composer Kay Swift, whom he frequently consulted about his music. The two never married, but he titled his 1926 musical Oh, Kay for her. His compositions have been adapted for use in film and television, with several becoming jazz standards recorded and covered in many variations.
Composer and pianist George Gershwin, whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, passed away at 38 from a malignant brain tumor on July 11, 1937 in Los Angeles, California.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie H. “Devil” Gaines was born on August 8, 1900 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, Gaine played in brass bands in his hometown before moving to New York City in 1920. It was there that he joined the orchestra of Wilbur Sweatman.
Signing on with Clarence Williams’s house band, he went on to play with Sam Wooding, Earl Walton, Leroy Smith, Fats Waller, Charlie Johnson, and the Hot Chocolates.
In the 1930s Gaines launched his own band in Philadelphia, recorded occasionally, including once with Williams in 1934. Simultaneously he continued playing with Smith while playing in Louis Armstrong’s orchestra. He continued to lead bands in Philadelphia into the 1950s, especially at the jazz venue Carroll’s.
The 1960s saw him performing in a trio at the Hangover Club until he went into retirement in the 1970s. Trumpeter and bandleader Charlie Gaines passed away on November 23, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anatie “Natty” Dominique was born on August 2, 1896 in New Orleans, Louisiana of Afro-Italian descent. Claiming to be a direct descendant of Dominique You, the half-brother of the pirate Jean Lafitte, he studied with Manuel Perez.
Moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1913, over the course of more than three decades there, Dominique played with a number of New Orleans jazzmen, including Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Noone, and especially Johnny Dodds, who employed him from 1928 until his death in 1940.
Shortly afterward, Natty was forced to retire due to a heart condition, keeping him out of the music business for almost a decade. Returning to part-time work with a small combo in the 1950s, he played up till his death.
Trumpeter Natty Dominique, who recorded for American Music Records, Challenge Records, and Black Swan Records, passed away on August 30, 1982 in Chicago.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Johnny Wiggs, was born John Wigginton Hyman on July 25, 1899 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He started his music career on the violin but soon adopted the cornet. His main stylistic influences were Bix Beiderbecke and King Oliver, who Wiggs insisted did his best work in New Orleans in the years before he moved up North to New York City and was recorded.
Returning to New Orleans in the late 1920s, he took a job as a teacher in Louisiana and at night played in New Orleans jazz clubs. During this period in his life, he made his first recordings as John Hyman’s Bayou Stompers.
In the 1940s he returned to being a full-time musician, leading several bands and recording many songs. He used the pseudonym Johnny Wiggs, as jazz was still looked down on in some circles. He went on to be an important figure in the local traditional jazz revival.
The 1960s saw Wiggs performing part-time, remaining active until the Seventies. He mentored George Finola and Pete Fountain was one of his more famous pupils. He helped found the New Orleans Jazz Club and was a force behind the jazz revival in the 1940s.
Cornetist and bandleader Johnny Wiggs passed away on October 10, 1977 in his hometown of New Orleans.
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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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