Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jimmy Lewis was born April 11, 1918 in Nashville, Tennessee learned to play the bass and though little is known about his early years, he began working professionally with the Count Basie Orchestra and sextet in the 1950s. He went on to perform with Duke Ellington, Cootie Williams, Billie Holiday and Ivory Joe Hunter.
Moving to bass guitar during his time with King Curtis, Jimmy freelanced profusely, recording on over four dozen jazz, soul and R&B albums. He was a sideman and sessionplayer with Solomon Burke, Billy Butler, Al Casey, David Clayton-Thomas, Sam Cooke, Lou Donaldson, Byrdie Green, Grant Green, Tiny Grimes, John P. Hammond, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Alberta Hunter, Willis Jackson, Boogaloo Joe Jones, Charles Kynard, Johnny Lytle, Freddie McCoy, Galt MacDermot, Modern Jazz Quartet, Idris Muhammad, Mark Murphy, Houston Person, Sonny Phillips, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Dave Pike, Arthur Prysock, Horace Silver, Johnny “Hammond” Smith, Buddy Terry, Charles Williams.
Continuing to perform and record up until the Eighties, double bassist Jimmy Lewis, who provided the basslines for the Broadway musical Hair, transitioned in New York City in 2000.
Three Wishes
The Baroness inquired of Jo Jones as to what his three wishes would be if granted and he responded with this simple statement:
-
-
“I have only one wish: to play ten more years.”
-
More Posts: baroness,history,instrumental,jazz,music,pannonica,three,wishes
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Randolph E. Brooks was born on March 28, 1917 in Sanford, Maine and began on trumpet at age six. By 11 he was discovered by Rudy Vallee and appeared on his Fleischman Hour radio show. He became a permanent member where he played thrilling trumpet solos, but was not allowed to play with the brass section of the band. By the time he was eighteen he was working with Jerry Blane for an entire summer in western New Jersey, followed by Gene Kardos and then Ruby Newman at the Rainbow Room in New York City.
Hired by Hal Kemp, he cut his first records for the Victor label in 1939. After Kemp’s death late in 1940, he stayed with the band when Art Jarrett took leadership. But by 1942 he moved on to a brief relationship with Claude Thornhill, followed by Bob Allen, but within a year he was playing with Les Brown before founding his own band in early 1945.
John Benson Brooks, who was not related, contributed arrangements to the ensemble that included Stan Getz in 1946. Among his hits for Decca Records were Tenderly, Harlem Nocturne, and The Man With The Horn, but unfortunately his swing-based style and large ensemble were out of step with the times, and his success eroded toward the end of the decade.
He married singer and bandleader Ina Ray Hutton and moved to Los Angeles, California where he suffered a stroke and was unable to continue as a musician. Trumpeter and bandleader Randy Brooks transitioned at the age of 49 of smoke inhalation in a fire at his Sanford, Maine apartment.on March 21, 1967.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Andy Raphael Thomas Hamilton was born on March 26, 1918 in Port Maria, Jamaica, and learnt to play saxophone on a bamboo instrument. He formed his first band in 1928 with friends who played oil drums and Hamilton a bamboo saxophone. He was influenced by Duke Ellington and Count Basie and by the Kingston-based bands of Redver Cook and Roy Coburn.
Spending some time in the United States Andy worked as a cook and farm labourer, while having short jazz residencies in Buffalo and Syracuse, New York. Returning to Jamaica he worked as musical arranger for Errol Flynn at his hotel The Titchfield, and on his yacht the Zaka.
Emigrated as a stowaway to the United Kingdom in 1949 and eventually lived and worked in Birmingham, England. By day he worked in a factory, by night he played jazz with his own group, the Blue Notes that included fellow Jamaican pianist Sam Brown. Besides playing mainly local gigs, Hamilton booked an early Steel Pulse and numerous Jamaican bands around town before establishing a regular weekly venue in Bearwood. There he invited visiting musicians such as Joe Newman, Al Casey, Teddy Edwards, Art Farmer, Harry Sweets Edison, and David Murray. He fronted weekly gigs on Thursday nights at Bearwood Corks.
Having recovered from a diabetic coma in 1986, he celebrated his 70th birthday in 1988 playing at his regular venue, The Bear. He performed at the Soho Jazz Festival, and in 1991 at the age of 73, Andy made his first ever recording with Nick Gold, Silvershine on World Circuit Records. It became the biggest selling UK Jazz Album of the Year, The Times Jazz Album of the Year, and one of the 50 Sony Recordings of the Year. It was followed two years later by Jamaica at Night.
He continued to play, teach and promote music even as he approached his 94th birthday. Saxophonist Andy Hamilton, who in 2008 was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), transitioned peacefully on June 3, 2012
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leroy Lovett was born on March 17, 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and studied piano with Sophie Stokowski, the wife of Leopold Stokowski, from the age of four. He began composing early and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree from Temple University and then continued his studies at the Schillinger House of Music.
He led his own band in Philadelphia before settling in New York City in 1945. The move saw him arranging for Tiny Bradshaw and Luis Russell, and working with Noble Sissle, Lucky Millinder, and Mercer Ellington. During his period away from Duke Ellington, Leroy was in the band of Johnny Hodges and recorded with him until 1955. At the end of the 1950s, he was in the Cootie Williams band and the Cat Anderson band.
During the 1950s he was a music publisher, a record producer, and had a dance orchestra in Philadelphia. From 1959, he worked for Wynne Records, and from 1968 to 1973 for Motown Records. He was still active as a musician and arranger with the Melodymakers Orchestra, he also appeared with the Uni-Bigband of Halle.
He recorded two albums under his own name and also recorded with Al Sears, Harry Carney, Al Hibbler, Lawrence Brown, Billie Holiday, Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, and Johnny Hodges.
Pianist and arranger Leroy Lovett, who also wrote music for film, transitioned on December 9, 2013 in Chatsworth, California.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano