Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie LaVere was born Charles LaVere Johnson on July 18, 1910 in Salina, Kansas to a Union Pacific Railroad blacksmith and where he first acquired an interest in music. His first musical instrument was a cornet, then later acquired an upright baritone horn, on which he learned to play many popular songs of the day. Studying piano in the 4th grade was the turning point in his decision to make it his instrument of choice.
At age twelve, after attending a Willard Robison and his Deep River Orchestra he gained an interest in jazz. He studied piano throughout high school and performed in various recitals and assemblies. At the age of eighteen he visited Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where he was introduced to Jack Teagarden, his brother Charlie Teagarden and where he studied Music at the University of Oklahoma at Norman. He performed with Frank William’s Oklahomans on campus and in local venues. He would go on to tour in 1929 during the Wall Street Crash, with brief stints in various bands including Louis Armstrong.
Relocating to Chicago, Illinois in 1932 he shared an apartment with the Teagarden’s and their spouses. He began playing regularly with Joe and Marty Marsala, Floyd Towne, Jim Barnes, Ray Biondi, Shorty Cherock, Larry Russel, Clark Galehouse, Carl Bean and Wingy Manone. He would perform his first recorded sessions supporting Wingy Manone and Teagarden in addition to leading his own bands.
After touring Texas and the mid-west with Eddie Neibauer and Dell Coon in 1934, he returned to local Chicago venues, working regularly with Joe Marsala. He assembled a multiracial group of musicians, befriended writer and jazz critic Helen Oakley, and recorded for Brunswick Records and Columbia Records. LaVere then found steady work in radio, performing on the Fibber McGee and Molly show for NBC. He also sang and arranged songs for a vocal group. Charlie briefly relocated to Fort Worth, Texas to perform in Paul Whiteman’s group and later touring throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, before heading West.
He worked as a recording artist for Decca Records at their studios on Melrose Avenue with The Andrew Sisters, Victor Young, John Scott Trotter, and Gordon Jenkins, and under his own name.
In 1944 he formed the LaVere’s Chicago Loopers featuring Billy May, Artie Shapiro, Floyd O’Brien, Joe Venuti, Matty Matlock, Nick Fatool, and George Van Eps. He would go on to perform for Walt Disney, Gordon Jenkins, George Burns, Bobby Darin, Bob Crosby and Wingy Manone.
As rock music became more popular his work became more sporadic and in 1964 LaVere accepted a position as assistant conductor at the Melodyland Theater. He performed piano and accordion on cruise ships, arranged and performed with Russ Morgan in Las Vegas, Nevada and continued to work with Gordon Jenkins, performing on Harry Nilsson’s album of jazz standards. From the 1960s onward he ran his own piano repair shop in the San Diego, California area, in addition to performing solo residencies at resorts in California, Oregon, and Colorado.
Pianist, vocalist, bandleader, and composer Charlie LaVere transitioned on April 28, 1983 in Ramona, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leonard “Ham” Davis was born July 4, 1905 in St. Louis, Missouri and began his career in his hometown playing with the Odd Fellows Boys’ Band as a teenager and landing a spot in Charlie Creath’s band.
>Late in the 1920s, Ham relocated to New York City, where he played in the bands of Edgar Hayes and Arthur Gibbs. His first recording was with Eddie Condon’s ensemble in 1929, and then he sat in with McKinney’s Cotton Pickers that same year. In the 1930s he played with Benny Carter, Don Redman, and Elmer Snowden, and did a two-year stint in Louis Armstrong’s orchestra starting in 1935.
Toward the end of the decade he toured Europe with Edgar Hayes and played in the Blackbirds revue in New York City. Davis joined Sidney Bechet’s revival group in 1940, and also played in bands led by Maurice Hubbard, Albert Socarras, and George James. He continued performing in small-time settings in New York through the mid-1950s.
Trumpeter Ham Davis transitioned in 1957.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edward Anderson was born on July 1, 1910 in Jacksonville, Florida. He began playing trumpet at age ten, taking his first lessons with the bandmaster at Florida State College. At 15 he went to St. Emma College in Belmead, Virginia\ and was principal trumpet in the college band.
He played with Luckey Roberts at the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, Florida and traveled to New York City with him in the spring of 1926. Roberts introduced Anderson to Clarence Williams, who began using him on recordings. He recorded with blues and jazz singer Bessie Brown on her album Song From A Cotton Field in that year. During the period between 1927-28, Anderson worked with drummer George Howe and Luis Russell at the Nest Club, and with Jelly Roll Morton at the Rose Danceland.
1929 saw Ed subbing for Louis Armstrong at Connie’s Inn while Armstrong was in the revue Hot Chocolates. He played with Benny Carter at the Arcadia Ballroom, Charlie Johnson, and Bingie Madison, then joined The Mills Blue Rhythm Band from 1930 until mid 1934. He later played in Charlie Turner’s Arcadians, then joined Hazel Scott’s big band early in 1939.
After a stint with Frankie Newton’s band at the Mime Club in New York in 1941 he left fulltime music. Eventually Ed Anderson, who often went by Andy, gave up the trumpet, but maintained a residence in the city. The date of his death is unknown at this time.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ray Bauduc was born June 18, 1906 in New Orleans, Louisiana and was the son of cornetist Jules Bauduc, his older brother was a banjoist and bandleader, and his sister was a pianist. His youthful work in New Orleans included performing in the band of Johnny Bayersdorffer, and on radio broadcasts. His New Orleans origin instilled in him a love for two-beat drumming, which he retained when he played with Bob Crosby’s swing-era big band.
Moving to New York City in 1926 he joined Joe Venuti’s band. During the 1920s he recorded with the Original Memphis Five and the Scranton Sirens, which included Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. His time with the Bob Crosby Orchestra brought him national fame and Bauduc and bassist Bob Haggart composed two hits for the orchestra, South Rampart Street Parade and Big Noise from Winnetka, which has become a jazz standard.
After his discharge from the Army in 1944, he and former Crosby group leader Gil Rodin formed a short-lived big band. He toured with a septet in 1946 and also worked in Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra for a couple of months that year. By 1947, he joined Bob Crosby’s new group, then left to play with Jimmy Dorsey where he stayed for the next two years. He freelanced on the West Coast for a couple of years before joining Jack Teagarden in 1952. In 1955, he formed a band with Nappy Lamare which found considerable success, touring nationally and recording several albums.
From 1960 Ray went into semi-retirement and relocatred to Bellaire, Texas but visited New Orleans in 1983. He appeared occasionally at Crosby Orchestra reunions, worked with Pud Brown on several recordings, and played with the Market Square Jazz Band headed by James Weiler in the early 1980s in Houston.
A trend setter in traditional jazz circles, his precise, disciplined, yet fiery patterns and syncopated fills, helped New Orleans drummers make the transition into swing from the rigid, clipped progressions that had defined the previous era. His use of woodblocks, cowbells, China cymbals, and tom-toms distinguished him from most drummers of the swing era, and made him one of the few white drummers to be influenced by Warren ‘Baby’ Dodds. Drummer Ray Bauduc, who authored two books on drumming, transitioned in Houston, Texas, on January 8, 1988.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Don Barrigo was born on June 12, 1906 in London, England. A competent tenor saxophonist, he was active in his hometown and New York City, New York in the 1920s and 30s.
Among the artists with whom Don played and sometimes recorded were Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang. In the UK he played with Nat Gonella, Harry and Sid Roy, Billy Mayerl, Al Bowlly, Percival Mackey, Bert Bowen, Howard Jacobs and the Freddy Schweitzer Band. In the States he played with Don Parker and Louis Armstrong, and in France with Serge Glykson.
By 1940 he was a member of Maurice Winnick’s dance band alongside fellow sideman Ted Heath. Tenor saxophonist Don Barrigo transitioned on May 4, 1977.
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