Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bernard Flood was born on December 16, 1907 in Montgomery, Alabama and graduated from Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute in the Twenties. The following decade he went to New York City and became associated with a series of bandleaders in a slow and careful fashion. For the first two years he worked with Bob Neal, moved over to Fess Williams for about an equal length of time, before becoming involved with Teddy Hill in 1933 on through the middle of the decade.
He was quickly in and out of the Luis Russell and Chick Webb outfits before joining up with Charlie Johnson. By 1937 the trumpeter was hitting high notes with Edgar Hayes as well as with Johnson, the former leader launching a terrific European tour. In 1939 Bernard became part of the Louis Armstrong big-band project, dropping out for a spring 1941 James Reynolds gig before rejoining Armstrong and remaining until 1943.
Military service called in 1943 and three years later he was discharged and began working with Luis Russell and Duke Ellington. Flood went on to start his own combo, and collaborated with Happy Caldwell in both the late Forties and early 1950s.
Retiring from full-time music in the early ’70s, Flood was available for gigs, but made no new recordings during this period. Suffering from diabetes Bernard lost both of his legs due to the disease. Trumpeter Bernard Flood, who was featured in the HBO documentary Curtain Call performing Wonderful World, transitioned on June 9, 2000 in Englewood, New Jersey.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louis Raphael Mucci was born December 13, 1909 in Syracuse, New York and began as a baritone horn player and was appearing in professional settings by the time he was ten years old. As a teenager he switched to trumpet and worked in the late 1930s with Mildred Bailey and Red Norvo before joining Glenn Miller’s ensemble in 1938-1939.
During World War II he played in the bands of Bob Chester, Hal McIntyre, Claude Thornhill, and Benny Goodman. In the first half of the 1950s Lou worked as a house musician for CBS and also recorded with Buddy DeFranco and Artie Shaw. Later in the decade he worked with Helen Merrill, John LaPorta and Miles Davis, the latter lasting into the early Sixties.
Trumpeter Lou Mucci, who also played with Kenny Burrell in 1964, transitioned on January 4, 2000.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edward Emanuel Barefield was born on December 12, 1909 in Scandia, Iowa, and grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. His father was a guitarist, his mother a pianist. He began playing the saxophone at the age of twelve when his mother bought him the instrument as a Christmas gift, and he took it apart to see how it worked.
He started playing throughout the Midwest, and gained his first major big-band experience with the Bennie Moten Orchestra of 1932. This led to work with Zach Whyte’s band and at 24 was offered a position in Cab Calloway’s orchestra in 1933. Eddie arranged and wrote music for Calloway for over 40 years.
Barefield conducted the orchestra for Ella Fitzgerald after Chick Webb passed away in 1939. In addition, he performed with McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, Les Hite, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, and Benny Carter. After the end of the big band era he continued to work by conducting shows, free-lancing, and playing in Europe.
He was the musical director for the original Broadway production of Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. He spent a decade in the band of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and composed and arranged for Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, and Jimmy Dorsey. Later in his life, Barefield worked with the Illinois Jacquet big band. Eddie appeared in films, including Cab Calloway’s Hi-De-Ho, Al Jolson’s The Singing Kid, Every Day’s a Holiday, and The Night They Raided Minsky’s.
Saxophonist, clarinetist and arranger Eddie Barefield, who arranged for the ABC Orchestra, transitioned from a heart attack at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on January 4, 1991.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Matty Malneck born Matthew Michael Malneck on December 9, 1903 in Newark, New Jersey and his career as a violinist began when he was age 16. He was a member of the Paul Whiteman orchestra from 1926 to 1937. During the same period he recorded with Mildred Bailey, Annette Hanshaw, Frank Signorelli, and Frankie Trumbauer.
He led a big band that recorded for Brunswick, Columbia, and Decca. His orchestra provided music for The Charlotte Greenwood Show on radio in the mid-1940s and Campana Serenade in 1942–1943. His group played in the film St. Louis Blues in 1939 and You’re in the Army Now in 1941. At this point in his career he changed the group’s name to Matty Malneck and His St. Louis Blues Orchestra.
Malneck’s credits as a songwriter and composed hit songs such as Eeny Meeny Miney Mo and Goody Goody, both with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, I’ll Never Be The Same, with music by Malneck & Frank Signorelli, lyrics by Gus Kahn, and I’m Thru With Love, music by Malneck & Fud Livingston, lyrics by Kahn.
Violinist, songwriter, and arranger Matty Malneck transitioned on February 25, 1981.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Bishop was born November 27, 1907 in Monticello, Arkansas and learned piano, trumpet, and tuba when he was young. He also played flugelhorn and mellophone. He attended Hendrix College and played professionally with the Louisiana Ramblers in 1927, including in Mexico.
Bishop played with Mart Britt, Al Katz, and Austin Wylie before joining the Isham Jones band for five years. He was a founding member of Woody Herman’s band in the 1930s, but he contracted tuberculosis in 1940 and had to leave the group. He was rehired by Herman as a staff arranger later in the 1940s, and his arrangements and compositions were recorded frequently by Herman, appearing on some 50 of Herman’s albums.
As a performer, Joe played with Cow Cow Davenport and Jimmy Gordon’s Vip Vop Band, but retired from studio work due to his health in the 1950s. Joe quit music and opened a store in Saranac Lake, New York, and later retired to Texas. His compositions include Midnight Blue, Woodchopper’s Ball, and Blue Prelude with Gordon Jenkins.
Tubist, pianist and composer Joe Bishop, whose work has been covered by musicians as diverse as Ten Years After and Lawrence Welk, transitioned on May 12, 1976.
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