Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lammar Wright Sr. was born on June 20, 1907 in Texarkana, Texas but grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He began his musical career playing and recording with Bennie Moten’s band in 1923. Relocating to New York City in 1927 Lammar played with The Missourians, staying with the group after Cab Calloway became its leader. Wright remained Calloway’s lead trumpeter until 1942.
Playing sporadically with Calloway through the rest of the decade, Wright would also played with Don Redman, Claude Hopkins, Cootie Williams, Lucky Millinder, Sy Oliver and Louis Armstrong.
In the 1950s and 1960s he taught music and worked as a studio musician, in addition to recording with Arnett Cobb, Count Basie, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra and George Shearing.
Wright led his own groups from time to time, had a role in the 1968 film The Night They Raided Minksy’s. Trumpeter Lammar Wright passed away on April 13, 1973 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Alden Lambert was born on June 19, 1917 in Boston, Massachusetts. His band debut was with Johnny Long’s Orchestra in the early 1940s and along with early partner Buddy Stewart; he successfully brought singing into modern jazz, concurrently with Ella Fitzgerald.
In the late 1950s Lambert teamed with wordsmith and vocalese pioneer Jon Hendricks. Annie Ross later joined the two vocalists and the trio lineup was a hit. After Ross left the group in 1962, Lambert and Hendricks went on without her by using various replacements, but the partnership ended in 1964.
Dave formed a quintet called “Lambert & Co.” which included the multiple voices of Mary Vonnie, Leslie Dorsey, David Lucas and Sarah Boatner. The group auditioned for RCA and was documented in a 15-minute documentary entitled Audition at RCA, and the Charlie Parker with Voices. It was one of the last images recorded of Lambert.
Lyricist and jazz singer Dave Lambert, an originator of vocalese best known for his work in Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and who spent a lifetime experimenting with the human voice and expanding the possibilities of its use in jazz, was struck and killed by a truck on the Connecticut Turnpike while changing a flat tire, passed away on October 3, 1966.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sammy Cahn was born Samuel Cohen on June 18, 1913 in the lower East side of New York City and began his music career studying the violin. After only three lessons at thirteen years he joined a small Dixieland band called Pals of Harmony, touring the Catskill Mountains summer resorts and play private parties. By16 he was writing his first lyric “Like Niagara Falls, I’m Falling For You” and his songs were being sung on the vaudeville stage by Jack Osterman.
Much of Cahn’s early work was written in partnership with Saul Chaplin writing witty special material for Warner Brothers musical short subjects. They continued to work with then up-and-comers Milton Berle, Danny Kaye, Phil Silvers and Bob Hope. Cahn soon began a partnership with Lou Levy and writing for Jimmie Lunceford, Glen Gray, Tommy Dorsey and eventually teaming with Jimmy Van Heusen and writing for Frank Sinatra.
His impressive career spawned lyrics for Until The Real Thing Comes Along, Love and Marriage, Three Coins In The fountain, I Fall In Love Too Easily, All The Way, I’ll Never Stop Loving You, The Second Time Around and All My Tomorrows among many more.
Cahn was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame, nominated for 23 Academy Awards, five Golden Globes and an Emmy. He received four Oscars, and had the Sammy Awards created in his honor for movie songs and scores.
Sammy Cahn, best known for his romantic lyrics for film, Broadway and stand alone songs, many of which have become jazz standards, passed away on January 15, 1993 at age 79 in Los Angeles California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rubén González was born on May 26, 1919 in Santa Clara, Cuba. He learned to play piano at the music high school of Cienfuegos. He studied medicine for a time, abandoned it due to financial difficulties and began playing with groups in Las Villas. In 1940, he moved to Havana, where he played in the charangas of Paulina Álvarez and Paulín, with Arsenio Rodríguez, Kubavana and Senén Suárez and in the big bands Siboney and Riverside.
By 1943, he released his first recording with Arsenio Rodriguez and during the 50s he served as a member of the Orquesta America, Orquesta de Enrique Jorrin and CMQ. Between 1957 and 1961, he worked in Venezuela but very soon he became known in Cuba and other parts of Latin America. In the early 1960s Rubén became the pianist for the Orquesta de Enrique Jorrín for 25 years, took over leadership after Jorrín’s death in 1987, but retired soon after.
It wasn’t until a meeting with Ry Cooder that González came out of retirement, recorded his first solo album in years and became a part of the Buena Vista Social Club with a host of veteran Cuban musician whose fame became worldwide.
Pianist Ruben González’s last public appearances were in Mexico and Cuba in 2002 and the next year the pianist passed away on December 8, 2003 at age 84.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pha Terell was born Elmer Terrell on May 25, 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri. He began singing in local nightclubs in the early 1930s as a singer, dancer, and emcee. Discovered by Andy Kirk, he was hired as the vocalist for his group the Twelve Clouds of Joy. Terrell sang with Kirk for eight years, from 1933 to 1941, and recorded with him extensively for Decca Records. One of the biggest hits was 1936’s “Until the Real Thing Comes Along”.
After 1941 Terrell moved to Indianapolis to play with Clarence Love’s territory band, then moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a soloist. Jazz singer Pha Terrell passed away of kidney failure on October 14, 1945 in Los Angeles at age 35.
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