Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Francisco “Chino” Pozo was born on October 4, 1915 in Havana, Cuba. An autodidact on piano and bass, he concentrated on bongos, congas, and drums before leaving his home for greener pastures. Moving to the United States in 1937, he played with Machito from 1941–43 and with the Jack Cole Dancers from 1943-1949.
In the Fifties he went on to play in numerous jazz ensembles, especially latin jazz and Afro-Cuban jazz. He performed and/or recorded with Jose Curbelo, Noro Morales, Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez, Enric Madriguera, Perez Prado, Josephine Premice, Tadd Dameron, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie.
He toured with Peggy Lee in 1954-55 and played with Stan Kenton in 1955, Herbie Mann in 1956, Xavier Cugat and René Touzet in 1959.
He also recorded with Illinois Jacquet, Phineas Newborn, Gábor Szabó, Paul Anka, Justo Betancourt, Harry Betts, Fats Navarro, Eddie Palmieri, Johnny Richards, A. K. Salim, Billy Taylor, Clark Terry, Chico O’Farrill, Julius Watkins and Charlie Rouse.
Drummer Chino Pozo, whose claim to be the cousin of Chano Pozo has been disputed, died on April 28, 1980 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dave Wilkins was born on September 25, 1914 in Barbados. He first played in Salvation Army bands in his native country. In 1937, he moved to London, England, where he worked with Ken Snakehips Johnson’s West Indian Swing Band among others.
He recorded with Una Mae Carlisle and Fats Waller in 1938, and continued to work with Johnson until 1941. Following this, he played with English jazz musicians such as Ted Heath, Harry Parry, Joe Daniels and Cab Kaye.
Trumpeter Dave Wilkins, who stopped playing in the 1970s, died on November 26, 1990 in London, England.
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Jazz Poems
LUSH LIFE
I used to visit all the very gay places,
Those come-what-may places,
Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life
From jazz and cocktails.
The girls i knew had sad and sullen gray faces,
With distingué traces
That used to be there.
You could see where
They’d been washed away
By too many through the day
Twelve o’clock tails.
Then you came along
With your siren song
To tempt me to madness.
I thought for a while
That your poignant smile
Was tinged with the sadness
Of a great love for me.
Ah, yes, I was wrong,
Again, I was wrong!
Life is lonely again,
And only last year
Ev’rything seemed so sure.
Now life is awful again,
A troughful of hearts could only be a bore.
A week in Paris will ease the bite of it.
All I care is to smile in spite of it.
I’ll forget you, I will,
While yet you are still
Burning inside my brain.
Romance is mush, stifling those who strive.
I’ll live a lush life in some small dive,
>And there I’ll be, while I rot with the rest
Of those whose lives are lonely too.
BILLY STRAYHORN
from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jack James Costanzo was born on September 24, 1919 in Chicago, Illinois to Italian parents. Starting his career as a dancer, he toured as a team with his wife before World War II. After his discharge from the Navy, he worked as a dance instructor at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Latin band leader Bobby Ramos heard him playing bongos in a jam session and offered him a job.
He visited Havana, Cuba three times in the 1940s and learned to play Afro-Cuban rhythms on the bongos and congas. Throughout the 1940s, Costanzo worked with several Latin bands, including a revived version of the Lecuona Cuban Boys, Desi Arnaz, and Rene Touzet.
Jack toured with Stan Kenton from 1947 to 1948 and occasionally in the 1950s, and played with Nat King Cole from 1949 to 1953. He also played with the Billy May Orchestra, Peggy Lee, Danny Kaye, Perez Prado, Charlie Barnet, Pete Rugolo, Betty Grable, Harry James, Judy Garland, Patti Page, Jane Powell, Ray Anthony, Martin & Lewis, Frances Faye, Dinah Shore, Xavier Cugat, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, and Eddie Fisher.
Costanzo formed his own band in the 1950s which recorded and toured internationally. Hollywood stars Marlon Brando, Rita Moreno, Carolyn Jones, Hugh O’Brian, Keenan Wynn, Van Johnson, Tony Curtis, Betty Grable, Vic Damone, James Dean, and Gary Cooper among others, studied bongos with him.
He went into retirement until 1998 when he decided to make a comeback. In 2001 he recorded Back From Havana featuring Gilbert Castellanos, Steve Firerobing and singer Marilu. In 2002 he released his sophomore album with the same cast called Scorching The Skins. He continued to tour and perform in California and abroad.
Percussionist, dancer, composer and bandleader Jack Costanzo, nicknamed Mr. Bongo, died of complications from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm at his home on August 18, 2018 in Lakeside, California at the age of 98.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Fletcher Smith was born on September 22, 1913 in Lincoln, Nebraska and was orphaned by the age of eight. He and his siblings moved in with their grandfather who had a nine-room house. When the Lloyd Hunter Serenaders came through Lincoln and there was a guitar player there named Finney. He asked Finney to teah him to play if he could get his uncle to buy him a banjo. He wrote out a chart of chords and gave him lessons when he came back.
Smith played for Cootie Williams in 1943 and in the following years with Slim Gaillard, King Perry, Varetta Dillard, Jimmy Rushing, Big Maybelle, Linda Hopkins, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Stick McGhee, Mickey Baker, Percy Mayfield, and Geechie Smith. In the Fifties he performed with Earl Bostic, Percy Mayfield, Benny Carter, Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton, Les Hite, and the Ink Spots, among others.
Under his own name, Fletcher Smith’s Squares and Fletcher Smith’s band, he played in the 1950s and recorded several singles such as Mean Poor Gal, Ting Ting Boom Scat or Shout, Shout, Shout. He recorded extensively as a sideman and toured most of the United States with various organizations. During the early 1970s he was a popular artist in Paris, France performing with the Golden Gate Quartet. From 1981 to 1991 he was featured in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Upon his return to Los Angeles, he became one of the mainstays of the Southern California music scene, he continued playing and honing his book of tunes and arrangements until his death. Pianist and bandleader Fletcher Smith died on August 15, 1993 in Los Angeles, California.
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