Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frederick L. Robinson was born on February 20, 1901 in Memphis, Tennessee. He learned to play trombone as a teenager, and studied music in Ohio before moving to Chicago, Illinois where he played in the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra.
Robinson went on to play on Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five recordings and continued working with both Dickerson and Armstrong until late 1929, when he took a position in Edgar Hayes’s band. In the 1930s he worked extensively as a sideman, with Marion Hardy, Don Redman, Benny Carter, Charlie Turner, Fletcher Henderson, and Fats Waller.
In 1939-1940 he was in Andy Kirk’s band, and played later in the 1940s with George James, Cab Calloway, and Sy Oliver. Early in the 1950s he worked with Noble Sissle, but after 1954 he was less active as a performer. Trombonist Fred Robinson passed away on April 11, 1984 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Claude Jones was born on February 11, 1901 in Boley, Oklahoma and began playing trombone at the age of 13, and studied at Wilberforce College before dropping out in 1922 to join the Synco Jazz Band. This group eventually evolved into McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, where he would play intermittently until 1929.
From there, Jones played in a variety of noted swing jazz ensembles from 1929 through the Depression until 1950, playing with Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Alex Hill, Chick Webb, and Cab Calloway.
He recorded with Jelly Roll Morton in 1939 and Louis Armstrong/Sidney Bechet in 1940. During the 1940s and into the Fifties, he also played with Coleman Hawkins, Zutty Singleton, Joe Sullivan, Benny Carter, and Duke Ellington.
After completing his second stint with Ellington, trombonist Claude Jones became a mess steward on the ship S.S. United States and passed away at sea on January 17, 1962.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harold Andrew Dejan was born on February 4, 1909 into a Creole family in New Orleans, Louisiana and took clarinet lessons as a child before switching to the saxophone. He became a professional musician in his teens, joining the Olympia Serenaders and then the Holy Ghost Brass Band.
He played regularly in Storyville, at Mahogany Hall, and on Mississippi riverboats. He also worked in the mail office of the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company for 23 years. In World War II, he played in Navy bands, then returning to his day job and his parallel musical career after the war, he led his own band, Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band, from 1951, was considered one of the top bands in New Orleans.
The band often appeared at Preservation Hall, recorded nine albums, and also toured internationally, making 30 concert tours of Europe and one of Africa. It was featured in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die, and as well as in many TV commercials.
Suffering a stroke in 1991 left him unable to play the saxophone, but he continued as a band leader and singer until shortly before his death. Alto saxophonist and bandleader Harold Dejan, known affectionately as Duke, passed away on July 5, 2002 in New Orleans.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Emanuel Paul was born on February 2, 1904 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He did not begin playing music until late in his youth, picking up the violin at age 18 and then switched to banjo. In the middle of the 1920s he settled on the tenor saxophone, where his instrument often substituted for the baritone horn in a brass band.
Becoming a member of the Eureka Brass Band in 1940 and remained with them into the 1960s; he also played often with Kid Thomas Valentine from 1942 and recorded with Oscar Celestin, Emanuel Sayles, and the Olympia Brass Band. He led three recording sessions for the European Jazz Macon label in 1967. His sidemen on these records include Valentine, George Lewis, and Butch Thompson.
Tenor saxophonist Emanuel Paul, who was one of the first tenor saxophonists to hold regular work in the New Orleans jazz scene, passed away on May 23, 1988 in New Orleans.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jim Lanigan was born on January 30, 1902 in Chicago, Illinois. Learning piano and violin as a child, he played piano and drums in the Austin High School Blue Friars before specializing on bass and tuba.
A member of the Austin High Gang, he played with Husk O’Hare in1925), the Mound City Blue Blowers and Art Kassel from 1926 to 1927, the Chicago Rhythm Kings, the Jungle Kings, and the 1927 McKenzie and Condon’s Chicagoans recordings.
From 1927 to 1931 he was with Ted Fio Rito and worked in orchestras for radio, including NBC Chicago. Performing sideman duties in the 1930s and 1940s with Jimmy McPartland, Bud Jacobson’s Jungle Kings, Bud Freeman, and Danny Alvin, he began to concentrate more on music outside of jazz at that time. He played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1948, and did extensive work as a studio musician.
Bassist and tubist Jim Lanigan, who never recorded as a leader, played reunion gigs for the Austin High Gang, passed away on April 9, 1983.
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