Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Preston Haynes Love, born April 26, 1921 in Omaha, Nebraska, grew up in the North Omaha and graduated from North High. He became renowned as a professional sideman and saxophone balladeer in the heyday of the big band era. He was a member of the bands of Nat Towles, Lloyd Hunter, Snub Mosley, Lucky Millinder and Fats Waller before getting his big break with the Count Basie Orchestra when he was 22. Love played and recorded with the Count’s band from 1945–1947 and played on Basie’s only #1 hit record, Open The Door Richard.
Love eventually became a bandleader and played behind Lena Horne, Billie Holiday, his friends Johnny Otis and Wynonie Harris, with whom he had several hits.
In 1952, he launched the short-lived Spin Records, as a joint effort with songwriter Otis René (When It’s Sleepy Time Down South). The label released material by the Preston Love Orchestra, among others.
As the music changed so did he and in the early 1960s Love moved to Los Angeles, California and began working with Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, eventually becoming Motown’s West Coast house bandleader with whom he played & toured with The Four Tops, The Temptations, Tammi Terrell, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder among others.
He recorded with Nichelle Nichols, Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa, Shuggie Otis, T-Bone Walker, Charles Brown, Ruth Brown, and many others. Preston also appears in the Clint Eastwood film Play Misty For Me with the Johnny Otis band. He toured the U.S. and Europe quite frequently into the 2000s, additionally lecturing and writing about the history he was part of.
In his later years Love moved back to Omaha, wrote a book, led bands, the last of which featured his daughter vocalist Portia Love, drummer Gary E. Foster, pianist Orville Johnson, and bassist Nate Mickels. He was an advertising agent for the Omaha Star, a local newspaper serving the city Black community.
A recipient of several awards and honors including induction into the Omaha Black Music Hall Of Fame, saxophonist, bandleader, and songwriter Preston Love, who released three albums as a leader, passed away on February 12, 2004, after battling prostate cancer.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Rosengarden was born Robert Marshall Rosengarden on April 23, 1924 in Elgin, Illinois and began playing drums when he was 12, and later studied at the University of Michigan. After playing drums in Army bands in World War II, he moved to New York City and worked in several groups between 1945 and 1948 before becoming a busy studio musician.
He played in the orchestras at NBC-TV from 1949–1968 and ABC from 1969–1974 on The Steve Allen Show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, Sing Along With Mitch, Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show Band, and led the band for The Dick Cavett Show.
Through the years, Rosengarden was an active studio musician, recording with Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Skitch Henderson, Quincy Jones, Peter Nero, Gil Evans, Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Benny Goodman, Moondog, Dick Hyman, Arlo Guthrie, Carmen McRae, Ben E. King, Harry Belafonte, Barbra Streisand, Jimi Hendrix, Stan Getz, Oliver Nelson, Jimmy Smith, Sylvia Syms, Milt Hinton, Derek Smith, Bob Wilber, Keny Davern, Walter Wanderley, Kai Winding and Tony Bennett.
In later years, Rosengarden was most often heard as the drummer with a variety of all-star, swing-oriented groups, including the Soprano Summit. Drummer Robert Rosengarden passed away from Alzheimer’s disease on February 27, 2007 in Sarasota, Florida, at the age of 82.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lou Stein was born on April 22, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1942 he had joined Ray McKinley’s band in 1942. While serving military service he played with Glenn Miller’s Army Airforce Band stateside during World War II but never went overseas.
After the war, he worked with Charlie Ventura in 1946 and 1947 and became a session musician. Lou performed with the Lawson-Haggart Band, Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Louie Bellson, Red Allen, Coleman Hawkins, and Lester Young.
Recording as a bandleader, in 1957 Stein had a U.S. Top 40 hit with Almost Paradise, which peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. His cover version of Got a Match made the Cashbox Top 60 in 1958. His most famous composition was East of Suez.
He played with Joe Venuti and Flip Phillips from 1969 to 1972. From 1954 to 1994 he recorded sixteen albums as a leader and through the Fifties, he recorded with Louis Bellson, Woody Herman, Lee Konitz, Joe Newman, Charlie Parker, Cootie Williams. Pianist and composer Lou Stein, who was comfortable in swing, bop, Dixieland, and commercial settings, passed away on December 11, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billy James born William James on April 20, 1936 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He first came on the jazz scene in the Fifties when he began working with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, with the bandleader thinking the 15-year-old James was already playing at professional standards. He would then go to work with Booker Ervin. In the early 1960s with played and recorded with James Moody, Candido Camero, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Don Patterson, and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis.
With Patterson, he frequently recorded as a duo, and James led his own groups in the latter half of the 1960s. He worked further with Stitt during this time as well as with Eric Kloss. Further associations also include Eddie Harris, Houston Person, Grant Green, and Pat Martino.
Billy’s most illustrious performances including the Patterson side righteously titled Boppin’ and Burnin’ and even better, the Boss Tenors in Orbit! sessions in which Stitt duels with Ammons.
Drummer Billy James, whose most distinctive aspect of drumming is an extremely well-disposed shuffle that he seems able to reinvent endlessly, chorus after chorus, passed away on November 20, 2009.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sam Noto was born on April 17, 1930 in Buffalo, New York, where he learned to play the trumpet. While still in his early twenties he was invited to join Stan Kenton’s band as the lead trumpeter, playing with him full-time until 1958. He returned to the Kenton band in 1960 after a year-long stint touring Europe with Louie Bellson and Pearl Bailey in 1959.
Between 1964 and 1967 for two separate periods, Sam was also a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. He worked primarily in Las Vegas, Nevada after 1969. It was while living and working in Vegas, he became acquainted with trumpeter Red Rodney who was influential in Noto’s prolific recording career with Xanadu.
Relocating to Toronto in 1975 he quickly became a first-call studio player and member of Rob McConnell’s “The Boss Brass” for a number of years in the ‘80s. Noto established his own successful groups including the Sam Noto Quintet, performing frequently throughout Toronto in the ‘90s and early 2000s.
He recorded six albums as a leader and another eighteen as a sideman working with Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Rob McConnell, Frank Rosolino, Red Rodney, Don Menza, Buddy Rich, Joe Romano, Charlie Parker, Mel Lewis, Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Bellson, and Kenny Drew. He has had recording associations with Xanadu, Muse, Capitol, Sea Breeze, Dot, Coliseum, Reprise, Supermono, and Unisson record labels.
Now residing in Fort Erie, Ontario, trumpeter and bop soloist Sam Noto continues to play in and around the Toronto area, as well as closer to home in Buffalo, New York jazz clubs.
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