Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph William Thomas was born on December 3, 1902 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His first professional gig was in his home city with trombone player Joe Harris in 1923. Soon after that, he worked with Jack Carey, Chris Kelly, and Kid Rena. He recorded with Charles Derbigny in 1941, but the recordings were not publicly released until the 1960s, by which time Thomas had become a figure in the Dixieland revival movement.
He led his own ensemble at New Orleans’s H&J Tavern for much of the 1940s, then in 1951, he became a sideman for Papa Celestin. He worked with this ensemble for years, including after Papa French and Eddie Pierson had taken over as leader.
Other associations in the 1950s and 1960s included work with Freddie Kohlman, Punch Miller, the Olympia Brass Band, and on Swedish television with Sweet Emma Barrett in 1968. In the 1970s he worked with the Legends of Jazz, replacing Joe Darensbourg.
Clarinetist and vocalist Joe Thomas, also known as Brother Cornbread and was closely associated with the New Orleans jazz scene, February 18, 1981 in New Orleans at 78.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Edward McCracken was born on November 23, 1904 in Dallas, Texas. Early in his career he played with local Dallas musicians like Jack Teagarden, Eddie Whitley, the Southern Trumpeters, and Doc Ross’s Jazz Bandits.
From 1926 to 1928 he lived in New York City where McCracken worked with Johnnie Johnston and Willard Robison’s Levee Loungers. After returning to Dallas, he worked with Ligon Smith, Joe Gill, and Ross again. He went on to tour with Joe Venuti and Frankie Trumbauer, before moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1939.
While in Chicago he played with Bud Freeman, and in the Forties he worked with Jimmy McPartland, Wingy Manone, Benny Goodman, Russ Morgan, and Wayne King. He substituted for Barney Bigard in the Louis Armstrong All-Stars international tour in 1952–53. Bob then toured internationally with Kid Ory and Red Allen throughout the 1950s.
During his later years in Los Angeles, California he played in several Dixieland revival groups, working with Ben Pollack, Pete Daily, Wild Bill Davison, and again with Teagarden, Ory, and Allen.
Clarinetist Bob McCracken, who is on many recordings including Kid Ory’s album, This Kid’s the Greatest, transitioned on July 4, 1972.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ethel Smith was born Ethel Goldsmith on November 22, 1902 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and began performing from a fairly young age. Traveling widely, after studying both music and several languages at Carnegie Institute of Technology, she became proficient in Latin music while staying in South America.
Smith performed in several Hollywood films such as George White’s Scandals and Melody Time. Her appearance in these films brought notoriety to her colorful, elaborate costumes, especially her hats.
Her rendition of Tico Tico became her best-known hit. She performed it in the MGM film Bathing Beauty in 1944, after which her recording reached the U.S. pop charts that November, peaking at #14 and selling nearly two million copies worldwide. Her other well known hits were Down Yonder and Monkey on a String.
Smith was a guitarist as well as an organist, and in her later years occasionally played the guitar live for audiences, but all her recordings were on the organ. She recorded dozens of albums, mostly for Decca Records.
Organist Ethel Smith, who became widely known as associated with Latin music, transitioned on May 10, 1996, at age 93 in Palm Beach, Florida.
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Jazz Poems
POEM Little brown boy, Slim, dark, big-eyed, Crooning love songs to your banjo Down at Lafayette– Gee, boy, I love the way you hold your head, High sort of and a bit to one side, Like a prince, a jazz prince, And I love Your eyes flashing, and your hands, And your patent-leathered feet And your shoulders jerking the jig-wa. And I love your teeth flashing, And the way your hair shines in the spotlight Like it was the real stuff. Gee, brown boy, I loves you all I’m glad I’m a jig. I’m glad I can Understand your dancin’ and your Singin’ and feel all the happiness And joy and don’t-care in you. Gee, boy, when you sing, I can close my ears And hear tom-toms just as plain. Listen to me, will you, what do I know About tom-toms? But I like the word, sort of, Don’t you? It belongs to us. Gee, boy, I love the way you hold your head, And the way you sing and dance, And everything. Say, I think you’re wonderful. You’re All right with me. You are. HELENE JOHNSONfrom Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Ostend Brown was born on November 9, 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland and learned to play piano, trumpet, and saxophone in his youth. Professionally known as Pete Brown, he played in New York City with Bernie Robinson’s orchestra in 1928, and played from 1928 to 1934 with Charlie Skeete.
1937 saw him working in the John Kirby band for several years and during the decade he worked with Frankie Newton, who was also a member of Kirby’s band. Brown and Newton recorded often. In addition to recording under his own name, he also recorded with Willie “The Lion” Smith, Jimmie Noone, Buster Bailey, Leonard Feather, Joe Marsala, and Maxine Sullivan.
Pete worked on 52nd Street in New York City in the 1940s, both as a sideman with Slim Gaillard, among others. As a bandleader, he was in Allen Eager’s 52nd Street All-Stars in 1946.
In the 1950s, Brown’s health began to fail, and he receded from full-time performance. He played with Joe Wilder, Big Joe Turner, Sammy Price, and Champion Jack Dupree. He appeared at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival with Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldridge. His last appearance was in 1960 with Dizzy Gillespie.
Alto saxophonist and bandleader Pete Brown, who was Cecil Payne and Flip Phillips teacher, transitioned on September 20, 1963 in New York City.
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