Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cecil Scott was born in Springfield, Ohio on November 22, 1905 and played clarinet and tenor saxophone as a teenager with his brother, drummer Lloyd Scott. They played together as co-leaders through the end of the 1920s, holding residencies in Ohio, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in New York City at the Savoy Ballroom. Among the members of this ensemble were Dicky Wells, Frankie Newton, Bill Coleman, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Hodges and Chu Berry.
By 1929 Cecil took full music control over the group in 1929, though Lloyd continued to manage the group. However, he was seriously injured in an accident in the early 1930s that temporarily sidelined his career. After recovery, he would play in different groups through the Thirties with Ellsworth Reynolds, Teddy Hill, Clarence Williams and Teddy Wilson accompanying Billie Holiday.
The early 1940s saw Scott playing with Albert Socarras, Red Allen, and Willie “The Lion” Smith prior to reassembling his band that hired at times Hot Lips Page and Art Hodes and towards the end of the decade worked with Slim Gaillard.
In 1950 Cecil disbanded the group, worked with Jimmy McPartland as a sideman, occasionally led groups and continued to play as a sideman up until the time of his death on January 5, 1964 in New York City. The clarinetist, tenor saxophonist and bandleader is credited on some 75 albums.
Inspire A Young Mind
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Art Hodes was born Arthur W. Hodes on November 14, 1904 in Ukraine, Russia but his family emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Chicago, Illinois when he was just a few months old. Although he gained wider attention once he moved to New York City in 1938, He began his career as a pianist in Chicago playing with Sidney Bechet, Joe Marsala and Mezz Mezzrow.
In the 1940s Art led his own big band that would be associated with his hometown of Chicago, playing mostly in that area for the next forty years. By the late 1960s he starred in a series of TV shows on Chicago style jazz called “Jazz Alley” appearing with greats like Pee Wee Russell and Jimmy McPartland. During this period he also wrote for jazz magazines like Jazz Record and remained an educator and writer in jazz.
He toured the UK in 1987 recording with drummer John Petters, and then returned the next year to play the Cork Jazz Festival with Petters and Wild Bill Davison, followed by a tour with the Legends of American Dixieland.
Over the course of his career he performed and recorded with Louis Armstrong, Wingy Manone, Gene Krupa, Mugsy Spanier, Alert Nicholas and Vic Dickerson among others. Pianist Art Hodes passed away on March 4, 1993 in Harvey, Illinois and was posthumously inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1998.
Give A Gift Of Jazz – Share
More Posts: piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jo Elizabeth Stafford was born on November 12, 1917 in Coalinga, California. Her mother was an accomplished banjo player who folk songs became of great influence. Her first public singing appearance came in Long Beach when she was 12. She attended Long Beach Polytechnical High School with dreams of a career in opera but with the onset of the Great Depression she joined her sisters and became The Stafford Sisters. Popularity grew and they got their start at KNX Radio when Jo was just 18 and went on to perform at KHJ Radio in Los Angeles
The sisters found work in the film industry as backup vocalists, made their first recording with Louis in 1936 and a year later she created arrangements for Fred Astaire on the soundtrack of “A Damsel In Distress”. Jo went on to join the Pied Pipers, work with Tommy Dorsey in New York, record four sides for RCA Victor and then returned to Los Angeles. After the Dorsey years the group was signed to Johnny Mercer’s new label Capitol Records and started singing on the radio shows of Frank Sinatra, Bob Crosby and Mercer.
In 1944, Stafford left the Pied Pipers going solo, picked up the nickname G.I. Jo for her continuous performance for the US troops, hosted “The Chesterfield Supper Club” and before the decade ended had a couple of million-seller tunes. By the 50s she was doing work for Voice of America, recording at Columbia Records becoming the first artist to sell 25 million records and hosted The Jo Stafford Show on TV. In the Sixties she recorded for Reprise, Warner and Dot record labels in the Sixties, won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album for her performance a part of the comedy duo Jonathan and Darlene Edwards.
Stafford went into semi-retirement in the mid-60s citing the music business as no longer fun and retiring completely in 1975. She devoted her time to charity for those with developmental disabilities. She donated her library to the University of Arizona and was inducted into the Big Band Academy of America’s Golden Bandstand in 2007.
Jo Stafford, singer of jazz standards and tradition pop music whose career spanned thirty years passed away of congestive heart failure on July 16, 2008. Her work in radio, television and music is recognized by three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
More Posts: vocal
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billy May was born William E. May on November 10, 1916 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and started playing the tuba in the high school band. At seventeen he began playing with Gene Olsen’s Polish-American Orchestra and a few local bands. Hearing Charlie Barnet’s band on the radio, he approached the bandleader in 1938 and asked if he could write arrangements for the band. For the next two years he arranged, played trumpet and recorded with Barnet, with his arrangement of Ray Noble’s Cherokee becoming a major hit during the swing music era.
By 1940 Glenn Miller hired May away from Barnet to arrange, play and record prior to performing the same duties with Les Brown before settling in as staff arranger for the NBC radio network and the n at Capitol Records.
He composed for television with such familiar scores as The Green Hornet, Batman, Naked City and Emergency; and for film Sergeants 3, Pennies from Heaven, Orchestra Wives, Cocoon and Cocoon: The Return among others. While at Capitol Records, Billy’s orchestra backed many of the arrangements he wrote for the top singers, including Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, Peggy Lee, Vic Damone, Rosemary Clooney, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mercer, Jack Jones, Bing Crosby, Nancy Wilson and the list continues.
With his own band, May had a hit single, “Charmaine” though his most famous composition was the children’s song “I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat” recorded with Mel Blanc in 1950. He released an album as a leader titled Sorta-May, won a Grammy in 1959 for Best Performance By An Orchestra, went on to work with Verve, Reprise, Warner Bros. and Roulette record labels collaborating with Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis Jr., Petula Clark, Mel Torme, Jo Stafford, Dean Martin and Keely Smith on one of his final musical works. Composer, arranger and trumpeter Billy May passed away on January 22, 2004 at the age 85.
Take A Dose On The Road
More Posts: trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph Raymond Conniff was born on November 6, 1916 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, learned to play trombone from his father and learned music arranging from a course book.
Post World War II he joined the Artie Shaw big band writing many of his arrangements. Hired by Mitch Miller, head of A&R at Columbia Records, Ray became the house arranger. During this period he worked with Rosemary Clooney, Johnny Mathis, Frankie Laine, Marty Robbins and Johnny Ray among others. In 1955 Ray wrote a top 10 arrangement for Don Cherry’s “Band of Gold” that sold more than a million copies.
From 1957 to 1969 Conniff arranged and recorded as a leader and sideman for Columbia and their subsidiary label Epic, became a bandleader and had 28 albums in the American Top 40, created the Ray Conniff Singers, toured Europe, was the first American popular artist to record in Russia and stepping out of his element he produced a couple of light jazz albums sans vocals.
Conniff’s most famous album was his 1966 release of “Somewhere My Love” written to the tune Lara’s Theme from the 1965 film Dr. Zhivago. It featured the 12 female and 13 male Ray Conniff Singers. The album went platinum, hit the top of the American and European charts and grabbed a Grammy Award.
The next three decades were equally lucrative for Ray recording mainly out of Los Angeles and finding fame touring Latin and South America. He recorded an average of two instrumental and one vocal album a year and sold over 70 million albums worldwide. He continued to record and perform until his death on October 12, 2002 in Escondido, California.
Jazz Is Global – Share
More Posts: trombone