Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mike John Brett Daniels was born April 23, 1928 in Norbiton, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, London, England. He had an early interest in jazz at a very young age while studying at Aldenham School from the age of 13 in 1941 as a pupil until 1945. Taking up the trumpet at 16, his family moved to Stanmore, Middlesex, where he organized a new group called the Stanmore Stompers in 1947.

He is probably best known for his work with his own seven piece group, The Delta Jazzmen. He led this group from 1948 to 1974 and again in the 1990s. He moved to Spain briefly in the mid-1960s. He had very little recorded output during his lifetime but he recorded two albums worth of material, one of which was titled Mike on Mike from 1960.

There exists some well recorded performances by the Delta Jazzmen which featured Daniels from 1958 to 1963, along with additional input from trombone player Gordon Blundy and John Barnes on reed instruments. The rhythm section is accompanied on these works by banjo-tuba-drums.

Mike was regarded as an ensemble-orientated player who provided a solid lead combined with laid-back solos. Some of his other bands have featured talents such as Keith Nichols and John Chilton. The British Lake Label produced ‘Limited Edition’ recordings of Daniels’ work.

Trumpeter Mike Daniels, who aspired to reproduce the original styles of King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, died on October 18, 2016 at the age of 88

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JAZZ POEMS

TRANE

Propped against the crowded bar

he pours into the curved and silver horn

his old unhappy longing for a home

the dancers twist and turn

he leans and wishes he could burn

his memories to ashes like some old notorious emperor

of rome, but no stars blazed across the sky when he was born

no wise men found his hovel, this crowded bar

when dancers twist and turn,

holds all the fame and recognition he will ever earn

on earth or heaven. He learn against the bar

and pours his old unhappy longing in the saxophone

KAMAU BRATHWAITE

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Roy Hamilton was born on April 16, 1929 in Leesburg, Georgia to Evelyn and Albert Hamilton, where he began singing in church choirs at the age of six. The summer of 1943 he was fourteen and the family migrated north to Jersey City, New Jersey in search of a better life. There he sang with the Central Baptist Church Choir, and attended Lincoln High School where he studied commercial art. Being gifted, his paintings were placed with a number of New York City galleries.

In 1947 the seventeen-year-old Hamilton took his first big step into secular music, winning a talent contest at the Apollo Theater. But nothing came of it, so to support himself he worked as an electronics technician during the day, and an amateur heavyweight boxer at night, with a record of six wins and one defeat. The following year he joined the Searchlight Gospel Singers, studied light opera, and continued to perform gospel until 1953 when the group broke up. Then he headed back into pop music with something different to offer.

1953 saw Roy discovered by Bill Cook, the first Black radio disc jockey and television personality on the East Coast. As his manager, Cook made a demo tape, brought it to the attention of Columbia Records and got him signed to Okeh Records. His first session produced Rodgers and Hammerstein’s You’ll Never Walk Alone from the musical Carousel.  However Columbia released it on their pop label Epic and it topped the Billboard charts for eight weeks. He would go on to have hits with If I Love You, Ebb Tide and Unchained Melody and in 1955 was named Vocalist of the Year by Down Beat magazine. He would go on to record Great American Songbook singles Without a Song, Cuban Love Song, Everybody’s Got a Home But Me, and Somebody Somewhere.

Hamilton’s last hit record, You Can Have Her, came in 1961, and the Epic label treated him as a major star and issued sixteen albums by him. By the middle of the decade his career declined while recording with MGM and then RCA. In 1969 in Memphis, Tennessee, he made the final recordings of his career.

In early July 1969, he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage at his home in New Rochelle, New York. He was taken to New Rochelle General Hospital where he lay in a coma for more than a week. On July 20, 1969 vocalist Roy Hamilton, who was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, was Epic Records first star, inspired Sam Cooke, and influenced Elvis Presley and the Righteous Brothers, died after being removed from life support. He was 40 years old.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ian Armit was born on April 11, 1929 in Kirckaldy, Fife, Scotland and little is known about his youth. Surfacing on the jazz scene in 1957 he was found performing with Sandy Brown and releasing the solo EP Jazz Club Piano for Decca Records.

In 1960 Ian began a two year stint with the Humphrey Lyttelton Band and went on to record with Al Fairweather, Cy Laurie, The Wally Fawkes-Sandy Brown Quintet and Wally Fawkes and The Troglodytes. He guested a few of Chris Barber appearances for BBC Radio in 1963. The following year he led his own quintet on the BBC Radio program “Three’s Company.

Tiring of jazz he turned his direction towards blues in late 1964 he joined Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, followed by Long John Baldry’s Hoochie Coochie Men and then became a member of The Steampacket. He recorded with Rod Stewart, toured with Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac. He remained with Baldry until 1972 when he joined Bob Wallis on a European tour.

Moving to Switzerland, Armit once again led a quartet and recorded Ian’s Boogie Woogie with the Old Rivertown jazz band in 1989. He would play with the Piccadilly Six, the Harlem Ramblers and other blues bands.

Pianist, composer and bandleader Ian Armit, who never returned to jazz, died after a short illness on February 19, 1992 in Zurich, Switzerland.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Eddie Hubble was born John Edgar Hubble II on April 6, 1928 in Santa Barbara, California and learned trombone from his father, who was also a professional trombonist in the Los Angeles, California area.

A move to New York City in 1944 and by late in the decade had played with Bob Wilber, Buddy Rich, Doc Evans, Alvino Rey, and Eddie Condon. He played with his own ensemble from the late 1940s, recording for Savoy Records in 1952.

He played with a Dixieland jazz ensemble known as The Six in 1953, and worked with Muggsy Spanier in the 1960s, playing in Ohio and Connecticut. He also worked with the World’s Greatest Jazz Band.

Despite being seriously injured in a car crash in 1979, he was soon back playing, including for international tours.

Trombonist Eddie Hubble died on March 22, 2016, at the age of 91.

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