Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen was born in New York City, on December 26, 1921. As an only child and with his father dying when he was raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois largely by his mother’s Irish Catholic family. Running away from home at 16 he easily took to begging. A short stint in the Army was derailed by asthma and he was discharged.

He was a pianist and a prolific composer. By his own estimate, he wrote more than 8,500 songs, some of which were recorded by numerous leading singers. Allen won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition for “Gravy Waltz, for which he wrote the lyrics.  His songs have been performed and/or recorded by Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Mark Murphy, Judy Garland, Aretha Franklin, Lionel Hampton, Claire Martin, Oscar Peterson, the McGuire Sisters and Ray Brown among otheres.

He also wrote more than 50 books, including novels, children’s books, and books of opinions, including his final book, Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio published in 2001.

Pianist, composer, writer, actor, comedian, television and radio personality Steve Allen, who in 1954 co-created and was the first host of The Tonight Show, died due to a ruptured blood vessel on October 30, 2000 in Los Angeles, California. He was 78.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Herbert Anthony Charles Spanier was born in Cupar, Canada on December 25, 1928. He played guitar and harmonica at five, bugle in Regina, Canada cadet bands, and trumpet in high school. One of the first beboppers in Canada, and a figure of some legend on the Canadian jazz scene,

He played with Paul Perry and with his own band ‘Boptet’ in Regina before working in Chicago, Illinois from 1949-1950 and from 1950-1954 in Toronto, Canada. He was a sideman to Paul Bley in New York 1954-1955 and Los Angeles, California 1958-1959, and toured out of New York with the Claude Thornhill and Hal McIntyre orchestras in 1955.

He was an influential jazz musician in Montreal, Canada from 1956-1958 and between 1960-1971. Spanier taught briefly at Sir George Williams University, performed in various dance, hotel, and CBC orchestras, contributed music to NFB films. Herbie was the leader on the CBC’s ‘Jazz en Liberté’ and in various clubs. Returning to Toronto in 1971, he was a featured soloist for nine years with Nimmons ‘N’ Nine Plus Six.

For the next two and a half decades he led his own groups, won the Juno Awards, received a Special Recognition Award and recorded sessions in 1993-1994 in which he produced new works which combined with earlier recordings on compact discs.

Trumpeter, flugelhornist, pianist, and composer Herbie Spanier died in Toronto, Canada on December 13, 2001.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ralph Dollimore was born on December 20, 1930 in Ealing, London, England. During the 1950s he worked with Kenny Graham, Terry Brown Sextet, Jimmy Walker Quintet, Ted Heath, Eric Winstone, Harry Bence, Vic Ash, Geraldo. He was Petula Clark’s pianist in variety shows around the United Kingdom in 1959.

During the Sixties he accinoanied singer Matt Monro, led his own trio, and once again joined Ted Heath. The 1970s and 1980s saw Ralph as a pianist in Monte Carlo hotel. Returning to Britain he formed his own small group.

Pianist, arranger and composer Ralph Dollimore died on August 25, 1988 in London, England.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Nicholas Stabulas was born on December 18, 1929 in New York City, New York. After working in commercial music, Stabulas was a member of Phil Woods group from 1954 to 1957.

Through the Fifties he did extensive work as a sideman in the 1950s, with Jon Eardley, Jimmy Raney, Eddie Costa, Friedrich Gulda, George Wallington, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Gil Evans, Mose Allison, Carmen McRae, and Don Elliott.

In the 1960s he worked with Chet Baker, Kenny Drew, Bill Evans, Lee Konitz and Lennie Tristano. He remained active into the Seventies.

Drummer Nicholas Stabulas, who recorded fourteen albums as a sideman, died in a car crash on February 6, 1973 in Great Neck, New York.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Rosemary Squires was born Joan Rosemary Yarrow on December 7, 1928 in Bristol, England. She took singing, guitar and piano lessons while at school at St Edmund’s Girls’ School in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. Initially she entertained troops by singing on nearby UK and US Army bases around Salisbury. While maintaining a job in an antique book shop and office work, she sang with various groups and a Polish military band

Becaming a professional singer in 1940 Rosemary’s introduction was on the BBC Home Service’s Children’s Hour. She performed with the big bands of Ted Heath, Geraldo and Cyril Stapleton. She sang with the smaller jazz bands of Max Harris, Kenny Baker and the Alan Clare band. Moving from Salisbury to London in 1948 when she was twenty, by the 1950s and Sixties, she became a regular on the BBC Light Programme such as Melody Time and Workers’ Playtime.

She worked in the United States with Danny Kaye and Sammy Davis Jr., as well as appearing on the Johnny Carson Show. She would go on to perform for Prince Edward, and toured twice countrywide during the 2012 Royal Diamond Jubilee.

Jazz, big band, cabaret and concert singer and recording artist Rosemary Squires, who was president of the Studio Theatre is Salisbury and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, died on August 8, 2023 at the age of 94.

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