Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Born January 21, 1917, pianist Billy Maxted grew up in Racine, Wisconsin. He started out playing and arranging for the Red Nichols Big Band in 1937 and stayed with him for three years. After serving in the Navy he provided arrangements for Benny Goodman and Claude Thornhill and co-led a band with Ray Eberle from 1948 to 1948.
In the following years he worked with drummer and bandleader Ben Pollack, guitarist, composer and big band leader Teddy Powell and trombonist and bandleader Will Bradley.
Maxted moved to Long Island, NY and for much of his life he was a fixture at Nick’s in Greenwich Village. From 1955 to 1966 he recorded a dozen albums including Dixieland and Big Band hits. In 1961 he moved to Fort Lauderdale and that same year reached the Billboard “Bubbling Under The Top 100” chart with a swing version of “Satin Doll”.
He worked with Pee Wee Erwin, Bob Crosby and Red Nichols and over his career recorded for MGM< Brunswick, Cadence and Seeco labels. Not much was heard from him after his move to Florida and in relative obscurity Billy Maxted passed away on October 11, 2001 in Fort Lauderdale.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Allie Wrubel was born in Middletown, Connecticut on January 15, 1905. He attended Wesleyan and Columbia Universities prior to playing saxophone and clarinet for a variety of famous swing bands. His musical career began in Greenwich Village where he roomed with his close friend and actor, James Cagney.
1934 saw Allie’s move to Hollywood to work for Warner Brothers as a contract songwriter. He was a major contributor to a large number of movies including Busby Berkeley films before moving to Disney in 1947. He also contributed to films such as “Make Mine Music”, “Duel In The Sun”, “I Walk Alone”, “Melody Time”, “Tulsa”, “Midnight Lace” and “Never Steal Anything Small”.
He collaborated with many lyricists such as Abner Silver, Herb Magidson, Charles Newman, Mort Dixon, Ned Washington and Ray Gilbert, the latter collaboration penned Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah from the 1947 film Song Of The South, which won Gilbert and Wrubel an Oscar for Best Song that year. A few recognizable songs from his huge collection of compositions, some that have become staples in the jazz catalog – Gone With The Wind, As You Desire Me, Music Maestro Please, I’ll Buy That Dream, Mine Alone, How Long Has This Been Going On and The Masquerade Is Over.
After a long and successful career Allie Wrubel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1970, just three years before his death on December 13, 1973 in Twentynine Palms, California.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Trummy Young was born James Young in Savannah, GA on January 12, 1912 but grew up in Washington, DC. He originally started out as a trumpeter but by the time he debuted in 1928, he had switched to trombone and soon became one of the finest trombonists of the swing era. From 1933 to ’37 Young was a member of Earl Hines’ orchestra and later joined Jimmie Lunceford from ‘37 to 1943.
Although he was never really a star or bandleader, Trummy had one hit with his version of “Margie” and with Sy Oliver wrote the tune “Tain’t What You Do (It’s The Way You Do It)” that became a hit for both Lunceford and Ella Fitzgerald in 1939.
Young played with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie on a Clyde Hart led session in 1945 and with the Jazz At The Philharmonic. In 1952 he joined the Louis Armstrong All Stars and stayed a dozen years recording St. Louis Blues in ’54 and performing in the 1956 musical High Society. 1964 saw Young quitting the road to settle in Hawaii where on September 10, 1984 he succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz
Betty Roché was born in Wilmington, Delaware on January 9, 1920. She began her career by taking the amateur contest on the famed stages of the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Famous for her strong, dramatic way of singing the blues, she sang with the Savoy Sultans in 1941 and then joined Duke Ellington two years later replacing Ivie Anderson just days before his Carnegie concert.
Betty rose to the occasion to critical acclaim performing a section of Black, Brown & Beige. But it was her rendition of Take The “A” Train that gained her greatest fame. She performed it in the 1943 film “Reveille With Beverly” but because of WWII it would be nearly a decade later before she would record the tune.
Roché performed and recorded with pianist Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines, trumpet master Clark Terry and pianist/singer Charles Brown. In the late 50’s and early 60’s she recorded for both Bethlehem and Prestige and her contribution to the jazz scene is larger than most think as she is credited with being a major influence on bebop singers and the public’s ability to deal with the musical adventure.
Vocalist Betty Roché, known for her blues and jazz renderings, died on February 16, 1999.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chano Pozo was born Luciano Pozo Gonales was born in Havana, Cuba on January 7, 1915 and Chano showed an early interest in drumming, gaining his musical background performing ably in Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies in which drumming was a key element.
Growing up in poverty in the foul and dangerous area of El Africa solar where even the police feared to tread, By 13 he was in reformatory learning to read and write, study auto repair and hone his already exceptional drumming skill. Upon his release and during a series of lackluster jobs he composed music. His reputation grew among the people each year for the compositions he wrote for carnival and he quickly became the most sought after rumbero in Cuba.
At the beginning of 1947 Pozo moved to New York City with the encouragement of Miguelito Valdes with who he recorded along with Arsenio Rodriguez, Carlos Vidal Bolado and Jose Mangual. By September he was a featured performer with Dizzy Gillespie’s Big Band at Carnegie Hall and subsequently on a European tour. Their most notable material was ‘Cubana Be, Cubana Bop, Tin Tin Deo and Manteca, the latter two co-written by Pozo.
A conguero, percussionist, singer, dancer and composer, Chano became one of the founding fathers of Latin jazz, which was essentially a blend of bebop and Cuban folk music. Chano Pozo, a hot-tempered Cuban, was killed in a Harlem bar, a little more than a month shy of his 34th birthday on December 2, 1948.
Chano Pozo: 1915-1948 / Drums, Percussion
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