Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Sylvester “Red“ Callender was born on March 6, 1916 in Haynesville, Virginia. He made his recording debut at 19 with Louis Armstrong’s band. In the early 1940s, he played in the Lester and Lee Young band, and then formed his own trio. Through the 1940s, he recorded with Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, Charlie Parker, Wardell Gray, Dexter Gordon, Uffe Baadh and many others.

After a period spent leading a trio in Hawaii, Callender returned to the mainland, settling in Los Angeles, California. He became one of the first black musicians to work regularly in the commercial studios, including backing singer Linda Hayes on two singles. He would later turn down offers to work with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and the Louis Armstrong All-Stars.

On his 1957 Crown LP Speaks Low, Callender was one of the earliest modern jazz tuba soloists. Keeping busy up until his death, some of the highlights of the bassist’s later career include recording with Art Tatum and Jo Jones, playing with Charles Mingus at the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival, working with James Newton’s avant-garde woodwind quintet on tuba, and performing as a regular member of the Cheatham’s Sweet Baby Blues Band.

He reached the top of the British pop charts as a member of B. Bumble and the Stingers. In 1964, he was introduced and highlighted in performance with entertainer Danny Kaye  on his television variety show, in a duet on the George and Ira Gershwin song, Slap That Bass.

He worked with an array of pop, rock and vocal acts as a member of The Wrecking Crew, a group of first-call session musicians in Los Angeles, California. Double bassist Red Callender, who also plays tuba, transitioned from thyroid cancer at his home in Saugus, California on March 8, 1992.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

James Edward Davis was born in 1915 in Madison, Georgia. He and his family moved to Gary, Illinois, and then to Englewood, New Jersey, where he completed his high school education. Being musically gifted, he was accepted into the Juilliard School in New York City to study piano and composition, his fees being paid by a benefactress.

In the late 1930s he wrote the song Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) with Ram Ramirez but could not initially place it, until he offered it to Billie Holiday in 1942. However, due to the 1942–44 musicians’ strike Holiday didn’t record the song until 1944. Although at first it was only a minor hit, it soon achieved widespread success and went on to become a jazz standard.

During the early 1940s Davis struggled to make a living as a songwriter and supplemented his meagre royalties by giving piano lessons. Drafted in 1942, but as a member of the NAACP, refused enlistment into the segregated regiment, was ultimately imprisoned for thirteen days, then inducted into the army, serving three and a half years. By 1945, as a warrant officer, he was sent to France for six months, and learned the language. Back home, upon his discharge he left for Hollywood, joined the Actors’ Laboratory Theatre, however his acting career only offered stereotypical racial roles. At the end of 1947 he emigrated to France.

Warmly welcomed in Paris, in part, due to the fame of the song Lover Man, he styled himself Jimmy “Lover Man” Davis and entered a highly creative period, writing a number of songs and placing them with major French performers, such as Yves Montand, Maurice Chevalier, and Joséphine Baker. His songwriting royalties were still insufficient to live on, so he began singing his own songs in solo performances, touring through France, Italy, Holland, Spain, Switzerland and other countries.

Composer, songwriter, vocalist, pianist and actor Jimmy Davis, whose birth and death dates are currently unknown, and who was a close friend of Langston Hughes, transitioned in Paris, France in 1997. His biography, In Search of Jimmy ‘Lover Man’ Davis, was written by Professor François Grosjean.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Svend Asmussen was born on February 28, 1916 in Copenhagen, Denmark into a musical family. He started taking violin lessons at the age of seven and by 16 he first heard recordings by jazz violinist Joe Venuti and began to emulate his style. He started working professionally as a violinist, vibraphonist, and singer at 17, leaving his formal training behind for good.

Early in his career he worked in Denmark and on cruise ships, with artists such as Josephine Baker and Fats Waller. Asmussen later was greatly influenced by Stuff Smith, whom he met in Denmark. During World War II he played with Valdemar Eiberg and Kjeld Bonfils, during which time jazz had moved to the underground and served as a form of political protest.

The late 1950s saw Svend forming the successful trio Swe-Danes with singer Alice Babs and guitarist Ulrik Neumann. The group gained a dance hall reputation and toured the United States. He worked with Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, and Duke Ellington. Asmussen was invited by Ellington to play on his Jazz Violin Session recording in 1963 with Stéphane Grappelli and Ray Nance.

In 1966, Asmussen performed alongside Grappelli, Stuff Smith, and Jean-Luc Ponty in a jazz Violin Summit in Switzerland, appeared at the ‘67 Monterey Jazz Festival,and guested on Snakes in a Hole, an album by the jazz-rock band, Made in Sweden.

Actively playing violin at the age of 94, he became a centenarian in 2016, and his collection of jazz music, photographs, posters and other material is held in the jazz collections at the University Library of Southern Denmark. Violinist Svend Asmussen transitioned peacefully in his sleep on February 7, 2017.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Abe Most was born on February 27, 1920 in New York City, New York. He began his career in 1939 as a member of Les Brown’s Big Band. After serving three years in the Army during World War II beginning in 1942, he became a member of Tommy Dorsey’s Big Band.

Most made a few albums with smaller labels between 1946 and 1984, including Superior, Trend, Annunciata and Camard. His last two albums were Abe Most Live! and I Love You Much Too Much.

He was a studio musician for seven decades, recording on albums by Ted Gärdestad, Dick Haymes, Randy Newman, Dory Previn, Laurindo Almeida, Dominic Frontiere, Henry Mancini, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Ray Conniff, and George Shearing, as well as Joni Mitchell, Cher, Earth, Wind & Fire, and B. B. King among others. He can also be heard playing on the soundtrack of the film How to Marry a Millionaire.

Clarinetist Abe Most, the older brother of flautist Sam Most, recorded three albums as a leader and thirty-one as a sideman, transitioned on October 10, 2002.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Harold “Money” Johnson was born in Tyler, Texas on February 23, 1918 and didn’t start playing trumpet until he was fifteen. Moving to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1936, he jammed with Charlie Christian and Henry Bridges before joining Nat Towles’s band.

He played with Horace Henderson and Bob Dorsey before returning to Towles’s band in 1944 in Chicago, Illinois. He also played with Count Basie, Cootie Williams, Lucky Millinder, and Bull Moose Jackson during the decade.

In the 1950s Money’s associations included Louis Jordan, Lucky Thompson, Sy Oliver, Buddy Johnson, Cozy Cole, Mercer Ellington, Little Esther, and Panama Francis.

The Sixties saw Johnson played in the house band at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and recorded with King Curtis in 1962. He toured the USSR with Earl Hines in 1966. From 1968 he played in the Duke Ellington Orchestra and also worked again with Hines and Oliver.

He recorded with Buck Clayton, Pearl Bailey, Red Prysock, Barbara Lews, Jack McDuff, Houston Person, and Jesse Stone. Trumpeter Money Johnson, whose last performance was on the night before, transitioned from a heart attack on March 28, 1978 in New York City.

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