Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Vido William Musso born Vito Gugliermo Musso on January 16, 1913 in Palermo, Sicily. He moved with his family to the U.S. in July 1920, having arrived at the Port of New York on the Italian steamship Patria. They lived in Detroit, where Musso started learning to play clarinet. Ten years later, he went to Los Angeles, California and formed a big band with Stan Kenton in 1935.

Musso dropped out the next year to work with Gus Arnheim, Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa. He accompanied Billie Holiday and pianist Teddy Wilson on recordings in the late 1930s. He replaced Bunny Berigan as the leader of his band and tried unsuccessfully at other times during the 1930s and 1940s to be a big band leader. However, most of his career was spent as a sideman.

Returning to Goodman, he was a member of big bands led by Harry James, Woody Herman, and Tommy Dorsey. He went back to play with Kenton during the middle 1940s and  having moved to California, he retired around 1975.

Saxophonist Vido Musso, who recorded as a leader in the Forties and Fifties for Savoy, Trilon, Arco, Fantasy, RPM, Crown, and Modern record labels, transitioned on January 9, 1982 in Rancho Mirage, California.

More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Arthur Shapiro was born on January 15, 1916 in Denver, Colorado, and began on trumpet at age 13, ultimately picking up bass as his prominent instrument at 18. By the late 1930s he was playing with Wingy Manone, Joe Marsala, Eddie Condon, and Chu Berry. From 1938 to 1940 he played with Paul Whiteman, then returned to play with Marsala in addition to working with Bobby Hackett.

Moving to Hollywood, California in the early 1940s, Artie started playing with Jack Teagarden and Joe Sullivan before serving in the United States Army. In 1947 he returned to music, playing with Benny Goodman.

As an accompanist, he worked with, among others, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Anita O’Day, Doris Day, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. His list of recording credits runs to more than 100 during his period of activity, stretching into the late 1960s. Bassist Artie Shapiro transitioned in Los Angeles, California on March 24, 2003.

More Posts: bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Johnny Frigo was born on December 27, 1916 in Chicago, Illinois and studied violin for three years beginning at age seven. In high school he started to play double bass in dance orchestras. In 1942 he played with Chico Marx’s orchestra and performed a comedy routine on violin with Marx on piano.

Entering the United States Coast Guard during World War II, he played in an Ellis Island band with Al Haig and Kai Winding. After his brief turn at active service near the end of the war he moved to New Jersey and from 1945 to 1947 he toured with Jimmy Dorsey’s band. He later formed the Soft Winds trio with Dorsey’s guitarist Herb Ellis and pianist Lou Carter. During this time he wrote the music and lyrics to Detour Ahead and I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out.

In 1951, returning to Chicago, Johnny primarily worked as a studio bassist and arranger. He also led the band at Mr. Kelly’s, and until 1960 he played fiddle hoedowns and novelties with the Sage Riders, WLS radio house band for the National Barn Dance. Then in 1961 WGN revived the show and he played with the Sage Riders for another fourteen years.

He went on to work with Chicago jazz vocalist Anita O’Day in live and studio recordings. In the mid-1980s Frigo largely abandoned playing bass and concentrated on violin. He performed as a jazz violinist at festivals worldwide. Frigo also was a published poet and artist and played flugelhorn. He wrote and performed the 1969 Chicago Cubs fight song Hey Hey, Holy Mackerel.

Violinist and bassist Johnny Frigo, who was also a composer, lyricist, published poet and artist, passed away of cancer on July 4, 2007 at age 90.

More Posts: composer,history,instrumental,jazz,lyricist,music,piano,violin

Three Wishes

When asked of his three wishes, Art Blakey responded to the Baroness with these answers:

1. “I want to play my arse off.”
2. “To be as happy as my old man.”
3. “To be as hip as Jim Green.”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

More Posts: baroness,history,instrumental,jazz,music,pannonica,three,wishes

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Lucius Carl Watters was born on December 19, 1911 in Santa Cruz, California and raised in Rio Vista, California. At St. Joseph’s military academy he belonged to the drum and bugle corps. In 1925, he moved with his family to San Francisco, California where he started a jazz band. Teaching himself how to arrange music, he found work playing trumpet on a cruise ship. He studied music at the University of San Francisco with help from a scholarship, but he dropped out of school to pursue a career.

During the Thirties, he went on tour across America with the Carol Lofner Big Band. While in New Orleans, Louisiana he became interested in traditional jazz. Back in California, he assembled jam sessions with Bill Dart, Clancy Hayes, Bob Helm, Dick Lammi, Turk Murphy, and Wally Rose. In 1938, he formed a band that included Hayes, Helm, Squire Gersh, Bob Scobey, and Russell Bennett. The band found steady work at Sweet’s Ballroom in Oakland, California and slipped in pieces of traditional New Orleans jazz into the repertoire until Watters was fired.

1939 saw Lu established the Yerba Buena Jazz Band to revive the New Orleans jazz style of King Oliver. He brought in pianist Forrest Browne, who taught the band music by Jelly Roll Morton. He wrote music and arrangements to add to the traditional repertoire. World War II interrupted their performing and he joined the Navy. After the war they reunited and started playing at different clubs and backing visiting musicians Kid Ory, James P. Johnson, and Mutt Carey.

In 1950 the band broke up and Watters left music. He became a carpenter, cook, and a student of geology. Coming out of retirement in 1963 he performed with Murphy at an anti-nuclear protest in California to prevent a nuclear plant from being constructed at Bodega Bay. He recorded an album for Fantasy with Rose, Helm, Bob Mielke, and Barbara Dane. It included the title track and another song named for the San Andreas Fault, which was consistent with his interest in geology.

Trumpeter and bandleader Lu Watters, who had a mineral from California named wattersite in his honor, passed away on November 5, 1989 in Santa Rosa, California at age 77.

More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet