Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Theodore Powell was born October 24, 1914 in New York City. In the Thirties he worked with Frank Newton and other leaders in the city. In 1940 and ‘41 he recorded with Billie Holiday, whose band was composed of Roy Eldridg, Carl Frye, Kermit Scott, Sonny White, Lawrence Lucie, John Williams and Hal West. The second date had him working with Lester Boone, Ernie Powell, Eddie Heywood, Paul Chapman, Grachan Moncur, and Herbert Cowans.
Throughout the decade he recorded with Billy Eckstine and His Orchestra. The resulting album was released in 1960 as Mr. B. He also recorded in New York with Don Byas and Hal Singer. Powell then joined the Illinois Jacquet Orchestra with Tadd Dameron and Jimmy Mundy arranging
The Fifties saw Jimmy as a member of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band that recorded Groovin’ High live at Birdland. He went on to record several albums with Gillespie. He recorded with Betty Carter, Bernard Purdie and Otis Redding. Throughout the rest of his career he performed and recorded into the !970s.
Alto saxophonist Jimmy Powell died on February 16, 1994.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Albert Killian was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 15, 1916 and got his start playing with Charlie Turner’s Arcadians in the mid-1930s. He went on to play with big bands led by Baron Lee, Teddy Hill, Don Redman, and Claude Hopkins. The early to mid-1940s saw him swapping between bands led by Count Basie and Charlie Barnet, as well as being with Lionel Hampton for a period in 1945.
He appeared on film several times, played with Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series, and his interest in bebop led to Albert forming his own band to play the new music in 1947, but this was short-lived. Following this he briefly toured with bands led by Earle Spencer and Boyd Raeburn, before landing a the year residency in Duke Ellington’s band.
Trumpeter and bandleader Al Killian who was prominent during the big band era, died, murdered in his home at the hands of a psychopathic landlord on September 5, 1950 in Los Angeles, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alphonse “Al” Goyens was born October 1, 1920 in Wetteren, Belgium. He took piano lessons as a child but abandoned them at the age of twelve. In 1936, he bought a trumpet and began playing music again, teaching himself and playing with amateur bands. Completing a degree in industrial engineering, he was interned in Germany at the outbreak of the war and had to stop playing. Starting again he played too intensely, which paralyzed his lips, but overcame this situation through careful practice.
His return from captivity saw him a member of orchestras led by Henri Van Bemst and Jean Omer, making his first recordings with the latter. He then joined the orchestra of Léo Souris who played for the American army in Germany. Returning to Belgium, Al joined other musicians to form the Orchestre régulier du Cosmopolite , which gave him the opportunity to perform with major names of the jazz scene who were guests in Brussels.
In 1949 he and his orchestra again toured for the US Army, performing in Germany, the Azores, and the USA. Goyens led his orchestra for nearly a decade from 1949 featuring Jacques Pelzer, Bobby Jaspar, Francy Boland, Jean Warland, Freddy Rottier, and occasionally Don Byas and Kenny Clarke.
Once again he went on to work for the US Armed Forces and later with an international orchestra in Spain and the United States. Al later arranged and played in the Brussels Big Band. His favorite trumpeters were Clifford Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, and Clark Terry but his playing was more reminiscent of Harry Edison.
Trumpeter, arranger and orchestra leader Al Goyen played flugelhorn, and bugle, who never recorded as a leader, appreciated the sound of the muted trumpet, died on January 30/31, 2008 in Forest/Vorst, Belgium.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph C Mudele was born on September 30, 1920 and grew up in Downham, South East London. He left school at the age of 14 and began singing and playing in local bands. He began playing double bass at the age of 17 after buying an upright bass in a junk shop. After having served in the war in the Royal Air Force, he studied for a while with principal double bassist James Merritt with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
His professional playing career took off in 1947 with clarinetist Carl Barriteau, accordionist Tito Burns and the Jimmy Macaffer Band. He toured with Hoagy Carmichael during the autumn of 1948, and played with Charlie Parker and drummer Max Roach at the 1949 International Jazz Festival in Paris.
In 1948 Mudele became a founder member of Club Eleven, a Soho nightclub open between 1948 and 1950 which played a significant role in the emergence of the bebop jazz movement in Britain. After the club was closed he became a founder member of the John Dankworth Seven, while also continuing to play with others during the Fifties. During this period Mudele also played for Sophie Tucker, Judy Garland and Billy Eckstine.
Joe supplemented his club performances with extensive radio, television and recording studio work outside of jazz from the 1960s onwards. In later life Mudele lived in Bromley, played weekly at the Bexley Jazz Club in Kent, and took over management duties after owner Les Simons died in 2004. In 2010 he recorded For All We Know with pianist Robin Aspland and drummer Geoff Gascoyne.
Double bassist Joe Mudele, who was sometimes known as Joe Muddel or Muddell and was one of the Club Eleven Collective, died at age 93 on March 7, 2014.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Orchard was born on September 21, 1914 in Chicago, Illinois. He studied at Juilliard from 1932-33 and performed for a year with Stanley Melba’s band, but then worked outside of music altogether, mostly as a salesman until 1941.
Orchard became a part of the New York Dixieland scene in the 1940s, working with Jimmy McPartland, Jimmy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Bobby Hackett, Max Kaminsky, Wingy Manone, Joe Marsala and the Eddie Condon gang.
The mid-1950s saw Frank’s move to Dayton, Ohio and eventually to St. Louis, Missouri and still playing trombone although out of the spotlight. He never led his own record date and returned to New York in the 1960s. He worked regularly at Jimmy Ryan’s from 1970-71 and with Billy Butterfield in 1979.
Trombonist, violinist, banjoist and tubist Frank Orchard, who also played in the Willie “The Lion” Smith band with Jack Lesberg, Mac McGrath, Max Kaminsky, Rod Cless, died December 27, 1983 in Manhattan, New York City, New York.
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