Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Chisholm was born on March 29, 1915 in Glasgow, Scotland and began playing trombone in his youth. His musical career started in the Glasgow Playhouse orchestra and by the late 1930s he moved to London, where he played in dance bands led by Bert Ambrose and Teddy Joyce. He later recorded with jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Fats Waller and Benny Carter when they visited the U.K.
In 1940, during World War II George signed on with the Royal Air Force becoming a member of the RAF Dance Orchestra, known popularly as The Squadronaires. He followed this with freelance work and a five-year stint with the BBC Show Band and as a core member of Wally Stott’s orchestra on BBC Radio’s The Goon Show, for which he made several acting appearances.
In the 1960s, Chisholm was part of The Black and White Minstrel Show, went on to join the house band for two children’s programs Play School and Play Away, and had roles in the films The Mouse on the Moon, The Knack and Superman III.
Despite undergoing heart surgery, during the 1980s George continued to play with his band The Gentlemen of Jazz, with Keith Smith’s Hefty Jazz among others, and playing live with touring artists. He was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1984 but in the mid-1990s, trombonist George Chisholm retired from public life due to ill health and passed away on December 6, 1997, aged 82.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herbert “Herb” Hall was born on March 28, 1907 in Reserve, Louisiana. He began on banjo and guitar with the Niles Jazz Band, then settled on reeds playing clarinet. In 1926 he played with Kid Augustin Victor in Baton Rouge, then moved to New Orleans the following year. Hall played briefly with trumpeter Sidney Desvigne’s outfit, and then teamed up with bandleader Don Albert played for many years from 1929-40. Following this stint he moved to San Antonio with him and remaining there until 1945.
After this Herb moved to Philadelphia playing with Herman Autrey; a few years later he was in New York, working with Doc Cheatham and toured Europe with Sammy Price in the mid-Fifties. He was a regular at the New York clubs of Jimmy Ryan and Eddie Condon in the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1968-69 he was on the road again touring with Wild Bill Davison’s Jazz Giants, and then a stint with an offshoot band of The Jazz Giants, called “Buzzy’s Jazz Family”.
Hall worked with Don Ewell, and appeared in Bob Greene’s Jelly Roll Morton revue show in the Seventies. Herb Hall, the highly skilled stylist, clarinetist, alto and baritone saxophonist who produced an impressive body of work, passed away on March 5, 1996.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Phillip Thompson was born in Springfield, Ohio on March 21, 1918 and became a professional pianist from the age of 10. By age twelve Thompson was playing private parties with Bennie Moten and his band in Colorado Springs. During this time Count Basie played off and on with Moten’s band and at one of these shows Basie called the young Charles up to play.
Throughout his career has chiefly worked with small groups, although he belonged to the Coleman Hawkins/Howard McGhee band in 1944-1945. Throughout the 40s he recorded with Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon and J.C. Heard among others.
Thompson composed the jazz standard “Robbins’ Nest” and was dubbed Sir Charles Thompson by Lester Young. The swing and bop pianist, organist and arranger at age 98, passed away of colon cancer on June 16, 2016 in Tokyo, Japan.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Curley Russell was born Dillon Russell on March 19, 1917 in Trinidad. Learning to play bass in his youth, the double-bassist by 1941 had joined the Don Redman big band and two years later was playing with Benny Carter. During the early bop period of jazz he became extremely busy performing and recording with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
From 1947 – 1949 he was a member of the Tadd Dameron Sextet and became more in demand for his ability to play at rapid tempos typical of the period. During his short career as a sideman he performed and recorded with an impressive list of musicians: Buddy De Franco, Bud Powell, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, the Art Blakey Quintet, Clifford Brown, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, J. J. Johnson, Johnny Griffin, Stan Getz, George Wallington, Milt Jackson, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims.
Seemingly uninterested in the melodic mobility that was expected of bassists, he was never featured as a soloist and by the late Fifties dropped out of the jazz scene and left the music business altogether. Bassist Curley Russell passed away on July 3, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leon Joseph Roppolo was born on March 16, 1902 in Lutcher, Louisiana but by age ten was living in New Orleans. Young Leon’s first instrument was the violin, but being a fan of the New Orleans marching bands he wanted to play clarinet. Soon excelling on clarinet, he played youthful jobs for parades, parties and at Milneburg on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. By his teens he left home with Bee Palmer’s group that evolved into the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, that become one of the hot jazz bands in 1920s Chicago along with King Oliver’s band. Leon’s style influenced many younger Chicago musicians, most famously Benny Goodman.
Following the breakup of the Rhythm Kings he went to New York City jazz scene and recorded with the Original Memphis Five and the California Ramblers. Returning to New Orleans he briefly reformed the Rhythm Kings, made a few recordings but primarily worked with other bands like the Halfway House Orchestra, with whom he recorded on saxophone.
Roppolo soon began exhibiting more eccentric behavior and violent temper outbursts. Too much for his family to take, Leon was committed to the state mental hospital. Aging and feeble far beyond his years in his later life, he would come home for periods when a relative or friend could look after him, and he would sit in with local bands on saxophone or clarinet.
Leon Roppolo, nicknamed “Rap” and who played clarinet, saxophone and guitar, passed away in New Orleans at the age of 41 on October 5, 1943. He left for posterity such compositions as Farewell Blues, Gold Leaf Strut and Make Love To Me, the latter recorded by Jo Stafford in 1954 and that hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts and #2 on Cashbox.