Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William James Finegan was born on April 3, 1917 in Newark, New Jersey and grew up in a household full of piano players. While growing up in Rumson, New Jersey, he attended Rumson-Fair Haven High School, and taught orchestration to schoolmate Nelson Riddle. He studied piano with Elizabeth Connelly, piano and musicianship with flautist/alto saxophonist Rudolph John Winthrop., and spent time studying at the Paris Conservatory.
He had his first professional experience leading his own piano trio before being offered a job as a staff arranger for Glenn Miller after Tommy Dorsey bought a copy of his Lonesome Road and recommended him. Finegan remained with Miller until 1942 and arranged such hits as Little Brown Jug, Sunrise Serenade, Song of the Volga Boatmen, Stardust, A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square and Jingle Bells. He arranged these songs in collaboration with Glenn Miller, but also arranged music for films in which the band appeared in the early Forties. He then worked off and on for Tommy Dorsey from 1942 to 1952.
In the late Forties Bill studied in New York City, then lived in Europe from 1948-1950 where he studied with Darius Milhaud and Valérie Soudères. After returning to the States in 1952, along with Eddie Sauter formed an ensemble, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, which remained active until 1957.
Following this collaboration, Finegan found work in advertising, writing music for commercials. In the Seventies, he arranged for the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Mel Lewis’s orchestra. He taught jazz at the University of Bridgeport in the 1980s. He wrote arrangements for cornetist Warren Vaché and the vocal group Chanticleer until his death in 2008.
Pianist, composer and arranger Bill Finegan died from pneumonia on June 4, 2008 in Bridgeport, Connecticut at the age 91.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Chisholm was born on March 29, 1915 in Glasgow, Scotland and at the age of fifteen in the late 1930s he moved to London, where he played in dance bands led by Bert Ambrose and Teddy Joyce. He later recorded with jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Fats Waller and Benny Carter during their visits to the UK.
During the Second World War, he signed on with the Royal Air Force and joined the RAF Dance Orchestra, known popularly as the Squadronaires, remaining in the band long after he was demobbed. George followed this with freelance work and a five-year stint with the BBC Showband, the forerunner of the BBC Radio Orchestra. As a core member of Wally Stott’s orchestra on BBC Radio’s The Goon Show, he made several minor acting appearances.
He had roles in the films The Mouse on the Moon, The Knack …and How to Get It and Superman III. He was part of the house band for the children’s programs Play School and Play Away. He also sang and was a storyteller on Play School occasionally.
During the 1980s despite undergoing heart surgery, Chisholm continued to play, working with his own band the Gentlemen of Jazz and Keith Smith’s Hefty Jazz among others, and playing live with touring artists.
By the mid-1990s he retired from public life suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Trombonist and vocalist George Chisholm, who was appointed as an Officer of the British Empire (OBE), died on December 6, 1997 at the age of 82.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Samuel Koontz Donahue was born on March 18, 1918 in Detroit, Michigan and put together his first band when he was only 15 years old. He played in the bands of Gene Krupa, Harry James, and Benny Goodman. During World War II, he took over the US Navy band of Artie Shaw. After the war, he assembled and led a group that recorded extensively for Capitol Records.
He went on to create a new band enlisting trumpeters Harry Gozzard, Doc Severinsen, Wayne Herdell, arranger Leo Reisman, vocalists Frances Wayne, Jo Stafford and where Frank Sinatra Jr. spent time learning how to sing before it was dissolved in 1951. Then he re-enlisted in the Navy to serve in the Korean War.
His compositions included Quiet and Roll ‘Em with Gene Krupa, Convoy, LST Party, Scuttlin’, Love Scene, Please Get Us Out, Root Toot, Constellation, Conversation at Lindy’s, Saxa-Boogie, and Saxophone Sam. He went on to record with RCA Victor, Acrobat, Arista record labels.
Saxophonist Sam Donahue died from pancreatic cancer on March 22, 1974.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz..
Benny de Weille was born on March 6, 1915 in Lübeck, Germany. He studied clarinet under Hans Helmke and was heavily influenced by Benny Goodman, whom he often emulated in his own ensembles.
Benny made recordings with Teddy Stauffer, Hans Rehmstedt, and Willy Berking in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1940 he led his own Bar Trio. Following World War II he worked at Radio Frankfurt and conducted the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk Orchestra.
Clarinetist and bandleader Benny de Weille, whose last recordings were in a Dixieland style in 1951, died on December 17, 1977 in Westerland, Germany.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harry Charles Prime was born on March 5, 1920 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from St. Bridget’s Elementary and Roman Catholic High School. In the fall of 1944, he entered and won a singing contest at the 400 Club in Washington, D.C. and was offered a week’s engagement at the Club.
From there he proceeded to perform with big bands such as Randy Brooks, Tommy Dorsey, Jack Fina and Ralph Flanagan throughout the 1940’s and 50’s. Prime’s recording of the song Until with Tommy Dorsey sold a million records, but recording most of his hit songs with the Flanagan band.recording most of his hit songs with the latter.
In 1945, the Nations Disc Jockeys voted the Ralph Flanagan Band as the #1 band in the country and Prime was voted 20th best singer ahead of Dennis Day, Eddie Fisher and Dean Martin.
In the years following his tenure with the big bands, Prime never strayed far from the music business and worked as a disc jockey and radio host in various cities including WCAU in Philadelphia and WNPV in Lansdale.
His impeccable phrasing and vocal prowess led him to record Dear Hearts and Gentle People, Oh, What a Beautiful Morning, Nevertheless and Just One More Chance. He sits among the likes of Bob Eberle, Billy Eckstine, Dick Haymes, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como.
Prime recorded nearly 100 songs in the 1940s and 1950s, including Until, a million-seller with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. The song peaked at number four in the US chart.
Big band vocalist Harry Prime died on June 15, 2017 in Chalfont, Pennsylvania at age 97.
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