Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe “Bebop” Carroll was born Joseph Paul Taylor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 25, 1919. In 1949 he became a member of the Dizzy Gillespie big band. After the band broke up a year later, Carroll continued in a small group formed by Gillespie. In 1953, he left Gillespie to pursue a solo career and recorded albums for Epic Records in the 1950s.
Vocalist Joe Carroll, whose collaborations with Gillespie included the humorous songs Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac and Oo Bla Dee, transitioned on February 1, 1981.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Elmer “Sonny” Dunham was born November 16, 1911 in Brockton, Massachusetts and attended local schools, taking lessons on the valve trombone at the age of 7. He changed to the slide trombone at the age of 11, and was playing in local bands at 13. He began his musical career as a trombone player in the Boston, Massachusetts area.
By the late 1920s he had moved to New York City where he played with Ben Bernie for six months before moving on in 1929 to Paul Tremaine’s Orchestra. He remained there for two years and while working as an arranger and vocalist with Tremaine’s group he switched to the trumpet.
In 1931 he left Tremaine and for a few months led his own group, calling it Sonny Dunham and his New York Yankees. That same year along with clarinettist Clarence Hutchenrider, trombonist-singer Pee Wee Hunt and singer Kenny Sargent, he was recruited by Glen Gray for Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra. During the golden years of Casa Loma, he was a popular soloist, scoring a big hit with his trumpet work on Memories of You. He stayed until 1936, when he formed another more unusual group, Sonny Lee and The New Yorkers Band, which featured 14 pieces, with ten of his musicians doubling on trumpet.
Moving to Europe for three months, he then returned to the Casa Loma Orchestra, remaining until 1940 when he tried again to form his own group, this time, with more success. They debuted in 1940 at the Glendale Auditorium in Los Angeles, California and toured and held talent searches throughout the United States. After returning to New York in 1941, they were on nightly radio broadcasts at the Roseland Ballroom, and the Meadowbrook at Cedar Grove, New Jersey.
On the road in California the band played Los Angeles, were featured in the Universal picture Behind the Eight Ball with the Ritz Brothers and he served as musical director for this film, and was part of a vaudeville revue. Over the next couple of decades he would divide his time between New York and Los Angeles with stints in Chicago, Illinois. Dunham briefly experimented with dual female vocalists, Mickie Roy and Dorothy Claire, which did not turn out due to professional temperament.
Dissolving the band in 1951 Sonny joined Tommy Dorsey’s band as trumpet player, then reorganized the next year, remaining active until the decline of the big-band business. By the 1970s obscurity set in, however, he recorded playing trombone on a few LPs with Don Goldie’s Dixieland revival bands.
In the 1980s trumpeter, trombonist and bandleader Sonny Dunham, who was living in a trailer in Miami, Florida and still involved in booking bands for cruises and playing occasionally, transitioned from cancer on July 9, 1990, aged 78.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Fierstone was born in London, England on November 14, 1916. He played with a traveling revue in 1931, then played around the city with such bandleaders as Bert Ambrose, Harry Roy, Sid Millward and the Heralds of Swing through the rest of the decade.
The Forties then saw him playing with Frank Weir and Harry Hayes. During this time he also did copious studio work. He worked in an RAF dance band during World War II, and after the war’s end this ensemble performed and recorded as The Skyrockets from 1946 to 1953.
George accompanied Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, among others. He continued to work freelance into the 1980s.
Drummer George Fierstone transitioned on April 13, 1984 in his hometown.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Arthur Carey was born November 8, 1914 in Coulsdon, Surrey, England. His father was a pianist. In the early Thirties he had his own band that performed in the Croydon borough of London. After the start of World War II he opened a music shop in Streatham before being drafted into military service. In 1946 he opened The Swing Shop in Streatham, where he sold musical instruments and records and which he expanded into a mail order business.
He also played in dance and jazz bands in 1947 with Rex Stewart, who was visiting England, with whom he also recorded in London in September 1949, and in 1948 with Graeme Bell’s Australian Jazz Band. In the same year, Carey took part in recordings by Humphrey Lyttelton for Wilco, in 1950 with the boogie-woogie pianist Roy Vaughan. He was in Lyttleton’s band for a year in 1948 until he was replaced by Bernard Saward. The mid-1950s Dave led his own traditional jazz formations and recorded a number of records for Tempo Records and Decca Records.
Carey performed at the Royal Festival Hall in 1957 and contributed to pianist Pat Hawes’ recordings for Tempo. He worked as a music historian, collaborating with Albert McCarthy and the six-volume work Jazz Directory spanning 1949 to 1952. In the Sixties he led his own band in the 1960s.
According to his colleague Pat Hawes, his drumming was influenced by Baby Dodds, but also by drummers of the swing era such as Gene Krupa, Cozy Cole and George Wettling.
Drummer, bandleader and jazz researcher Dave Carey, who also plays vibraphone and washboard, transitioned on July 18 , 1999 in Croydon.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Albert “Andy” Gibson was born on November 6, 1913 in Zanesville, Ohio. He played violin early on before settling on trumpet. He played professionally in many orchestras and though he did not solo, he worked more often as an arranger.
During the 1930s his associations include Lew Redman, Zack Whyte, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, Blanche Calloway, Willie Bryant, and Lucky Millinder. He quit playing in 1937 to arrange and compose full-time, working with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Charlie Barnet, and Harry James. in the United States Army he led a big band while serving from 1942-45.
After his discharge, he continued working with Barnet but turned his focus primarily on R&B music. He was musical director for King Records from 1955–60 and recorded four songs as a leader in 1959 which were released by RCA Camden. He composed I Left My Baby popularized by Count Basie, The Great Lie, and The Hucklebuck.
Trumpeter, arranger, and composer Andy Gibson transitioned from a heart attack on February 11, 1961 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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