Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carmen Mastren was born Carmine Mastrandrea on October 6, 1913 in Cohoes, New York. By 1934 he was playing professionally as a musician when he joined the Wingy Manone and Joe Marsala band. Mastren worked with a variety of musicians during his career, including Raymond Scott, Ray McKinley and Mel Powell.
In the 1940s Mastren recorded with the Sidney Bechet and the Muggsy Spanier “Big Four”. During World War II he played with the Glenn Miller Air Force Band. It was during this period that he worked as musical director and conductor for Morton Downey, and from 1954–1970 he played for The Today Show, The Tonight Show and Say When!! on the NBC television network.
Recording as a sideman, Carmen worked with Dick Hyman And His Orchestra, Bobby Hackett, Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra, Bud Freeman and the Wolverine Orchestra on such labels as Mercury, Decca, Atlantic, Epic, Universal/MCA, Victor, RCA, Allegro Elite and Gennett.
Guitarist, banjoist and violinist Carmen Mastren passed away at age 68 from a heart attack on March 31, 1981 at his home in Valley Stream on Long Island, New York. He is best remembered for his work from 1936–1941 with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra as a guitarist.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dennis Sandole was born Dionigi Sandoli on September 29, 1913 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and played guitar as a child. From 1946 until the early 1950s he was John Coltrane’s mentor , introducing him to theory beyond chords and scales and exposing him to the music of other cultures.
Sandole taught advanced harmonic techniques that were applicable to any instrument, using exotic scales and creating his own. His students over half a century included saxophonists James Moody, Michael Brecker, Rob Brown, and Bobby Zankel; pianists Matthew Shipp and Sumi Tonooka; guitarists Jim Hall, Joe Diorio, Pat Martino, Joe Federico, Tony DeCaprio, Jon Herington, Larry Hoffman, and Harry Leahey, Rufus Harley, Bob deVos and Frank Gerrard.
He recorded with his brother Adolph, Modern Music From Philadelphia, released by Fantasy in 1956. Guitarist, composer and music educator Dennis Sandole, who taught privately until the end of his life, passed away on September 30, 2000.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Teddy Brannon was born Humphrey Brannon on September 27, 1916 in Moultrie, Georgia. He began learning piano at age nine and played in dance bands in high school while working locally in Newark, New Jersey nightclubs from 1937 – 1942.
Between 1942 to 1945 he was a member of Benny Carter’s ensemble, after which he freelanced on 52nd Street in New York City. The 1950s and 1960s saw Brannon working in the studios with doo wop groups and though he never recorded as a leader, he recorded as a leader with his orchestra in the late Forties and played extensively in the jazz idiom with but not limited to Don Byas, Roy Eldridge, Buddy Rich, Bennie Green, Johnny Hodges, Jonah Jones, Don Newcomb and Illinois Jacquet.
An accomplished accompanied he performed and recorded with such singers as Dinah Washington, Ruth Brown, Billie Holiday, and Babs Gonzales, who was Brannon’s cousin. Pianist Teddy Brannon passed away on February 24, 1989 in Newark, New Jersey.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rio De Gregori was born on September 22, 1919 in Zurich, Switzerland. He began taking classical piano lessons at the age of seven and at fourteen he began buying records by Duke Ellington and other jazz musicians. Although his parents wanted to make him a classical pianist, his interest were leaning towards jazz.
Rio first played with Willie Mac Allen in 1939, then with James Boucher, The Lanigiros, Jo Grandjean and René Weiss during the early to mid Forties. He was with the big band of Fred Böhler until 1945 when he founded his own dance orchestra bringing with him some of the best Swiss jazz musicians, Stuff Combe, Bob Jaquillard, Jean Pierre Dupuis, Luc Hoffmann, Raoul Schmassmann and Kurt Weil. He also featured Glyn Paque as a guest soloist.
He disbanded his big band and worked in a trio setting or as a soloist. Performing in Ascona, Switzerland, he met vocalist Suzanne Doucet and composed and arranged for her. Moving to Munich, Germany De Gregori played under the name Rio Gregory and opened a nightclub.
Because of his harmonious flair De Gregori enjoyed an excellent reputation as a pianist recordings. As an arranger he was commissioned by Fred Böhler and other orchestral conductors. He recorded four albums as a leader over the course of his career. Pianist and vocalist Rio De Gregori passed away on May 22, 1987 in Munich, Germany.
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Shep Fields was born Saul Feldman in Brooklyn, New York on September 12, 1910, He played the clarinet and tenor saxophone in bands during college. In 1931 he played at the Roseland Ballroom and by 1933 he led a band that played at Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel. In 1934 he replaced the Jack Denny Orchestra at the Hotel Pierre in New York City. He left the Hotel Pierre to join a roadshow with the dancers,Veloz and Yolanda. In 1936 his performance at Chicago’s Palmer House was broadcast on the radio.
The sound of his wife was blowing bubbles into her soda became his trademark that opened each of his shows. Holding a contest in Chicago for fans to suggest a new name for the band and with “rippling” suggested in more than one entry, Fields came up with “Rippling Rhythm.”
By 1936 he received a recording contract with Bluebird Records and had hits Cathedral in the Pines, Did I Remember? and Thanks for the Memory. In 1937 Fields replaced Paul Whiteman in his time slot with a radio show called The Rippling Rhythm Revue with Bob Hope as the announcer. In 1938, Fields and Hope were featured in his first feature-length motion picture, The Big Broadcast of 1938.
In 1941 Fields revamped the band into an all-reeds group, with no brass section. “Shep Fields and His New Music,” featuring band vocalist Ken Curtis. He reverted to Rippling Rhythm in 1947.
He disbanded the group in 1963, moved to Houston, Texas and became a disc jockey, later worked at Creative Management Associates with his brother Freddie. Shep Fields, who made a mark during the Big Band era, passed away on February 23, 1981 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California from a heart attack.
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