Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Newman Jr. was born on February 24, 1933 in Corsicana, Texas. He got his nickname in high school when his then music teacher noticed his upside down sheet music tapped him on the head with his conductors baton and called him “Fathead”. Preferring to be called David, the jovial Newman accepted the nickname that stuck with him his whole life.
Moving to Dallas he graduated from Lincoln High School, began playing flute and tenor at local shows, and received a scholarship to Jarvis Christian College where he studied theology and music for two years. This brief stay was followed with him on the road touring with Bester Smith (Charlie Parker’s mentor) and dance hall one-nighters with T-Bone Walker.
Newman’s professional career as a musician began in 1954 as a member of the Ray Charles Band playing baritone sax that was the beginning of a twelve-year relationship followed by ten years with Herbie Mann and playing with Red Garland for a period in the 70’s. By the late 90’s he was recording for HighNote Records and a long and profitable relationship started producing some ten albums.
For over a half century, Newman recorded over thirty-eight albums under his own name beginning in 1958 with Fathead – Ray Charles Presents David Fathead Newman. Although best known for his hard bop style, he’s recorded with James Clay, Cannonball Adderley, Stanley Turrentine, Aretha Franklin, B. B. King, Natalie Cole, Average White Band, Eric Clapton, Jimmy McGriff and many others.
Always a musicians’ musician, Newman has influenced whole generations of saxophone players of different genres including R&B, blues and country, and texmex. On January 20, 2009, saxophonist and flautist David “Fathead” Newman died from complications of pancreatic cancer in Kingston, New York at age 75.
From Broadway To 52nd Street
Red, Hot And Blue! opened the Alvin Theater stage on October 29, 1936. The music and lyrics, composed by Cole Porter, rendered the tune “It’s De-Lovely” sung by Ethel Merman. Though the show only ran for one hundred and eighty-three performances, the song became an enduring jazz standard. The story taken from the book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse goes as follows:
The Story: Loud and brassy manicurist Nails O’Reilly Duquesne is a newly wealthy young widow. Organizing a benefit for her favorite cause, the rehabilitation of ex-convicts, she teams with her ex-con sidekick Policy Pinkle and her “square” boyfriend, lawyer Bob Hale. Soon she embarks on a nationwide search for Bob’s old girlfriend, which is really the reason for the enterprise. However, the national lottery that Nails starts gets the attention of the Finance Committee, winding up in Washington DC in an even more complicated situation, with the Supreme Court declaring the lottery unconstitutional, because it would benefit the people.
Jazz History: The blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth and Seventh Avenue were renowned in the mid-20th century for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life. The street was convenient to musicians playing on Broadway and the “legitimate” nightclubs and in the CBS studio. Musicians who played for others in the early evening played for themselves on 52nd Street.
In its heyday from 1930 through the early 1950s, 52nd Street clubs hosted such jazz legends as Miles Davis, Harry Gibson, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Hoiday, Nat Jaffe, Marian McPartland, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Louis Prima, Art Tatum, Fats Waller and numerous more. Although musicians from all schools performed there, after Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, 52nd Street was the second most important place for the dissemination of bebop. In fact, a tune called “52nd Street Theme” by Thelonious Monk became a bebop anthem and jazz standard.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clyde Lombardi was born in February 18, 1922 in the Bronx borough of New York City. He had extensive classical training but by the time he was 20 he became a jazz musician. He became an advanced yet flexible bassist, quite valuable in the jazz world of the ’40s and ’50s, playing regularly with Red Norvo from 1942-1945.
Throughout the rest of the decade he would play with Joe Marsala and the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra in 1945, as well as both big bands and combos headed by Benny Goodman during 1945-1946 and his bebop fling of 1948-1949.
Clyde played and recorded with Charlie Ventura in 1946, Lennie Tristano, Wardell Gray, Stan Getz, Al Haig, Zoot Sims, Eddie Bert, Tal Farlow in 1953 and George Wallington among others.
Unfortunately for the jazz world he never got the opportunity to lead any albums of his own. He left jazz by 1959 re-emerging from time to time and working for CBS as a studio musician and recording with tenor Tony Graye. He passed away in New York City on January 1, 1978.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Buddy DeFranco was born Boniface Ferdinand Leonard DeFranco in Camden, New Jersey on February 17, 1923. By the age 14 he had won an amateur swing contest sponsored by Tommy Dorsey. Just four short years later he was working with the big bands of Gene Krupa in 1941 and Charlie Barnet in 1943. Those stints were followed with him playing off and on with Tommy Dorsey over the next few years.
Outside of a short-lived association with the Count Basie Septet in 1950, Buddy mainly lead his own bands from then on, playing and recording with Tal Farlow, Art Blakey, Kenny Drew and Sonny Clark, Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson as his sidemen, among others too numerous to name. He also played in some of Norman Granz’s Verve jam sessions and during the late 60’s DeFranco became the bandleader of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, an association that lasted until 1974. He has found more artistic success co-leading a quintet with Terry Gibbs off and on since the early 80’s and has recorded numerous albums.
Buddy DeFranco is considered one of the great clarinetists of all time and, until the rise of Eddie Daniels, he was indisputably the top clarinetist to emerge since 1940. It was DeFranco’s misfortune to be the best on an instrument that after the swing era dropped drastically in popularity and, unlike Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, he has never been a household name for the general public and while most jazz clarinet players were unable to adapt to fading popularity, Buddy Defranco was one of the few bebop musicians who successfully continued to play clarinet exclusively until he passed away on December 24, 2014 in Panama City, Florida at age 91.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
On Your Toes opened at the Imperial Theater on April 11, 1936. The show ran three hundred and fifteen performances and the music and lyrics were once again composed by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The production starred Ray Bolger, Tamara Geva and Doris Carson.
the Story: Junior Dolan, son of an old vaudevillian, becomes a music professor. He takes on the task of helping a struggling Russian ballet company. When complications arise, Junior is forced to take the place of the lead dancer and perform opposite Vera Barnova. Gangsters try to shoot him during the ballet but they are apprehended in time for a happy ending that included his proposal of marriage to sweet Frankie Frayne. From this musical came two songs that have endured as jazz classics – Glad To Be Unhappy and There’s A Small Hotel.
Broadway History: Broadway and 39th Street became the site where Aronson built The Casino with the procurement of financing from some of the wealthiest finance wizards of the day – the Goulds, Roosevelts, Vanderbilts and Morgans. When it opened I n 1882, The Casino was considered the finest example of Moorish architecture outside of Spain.
While Aronson was building his theatre, Charles Frohman had begun his separate career as the manager of theatrical professionals and in 1893 opened his own theatre. The Empire was one block up from The Casino. In November of that year Abbey’s Theatre opened next door to The Casino and the uptown migration of the theatre district continued. The Casino led the way for a number of entrepreneurs to build in the vicinity of Longacre Square, a long open promenade where Broadway crossed 7th Avenue. Following Aronson’s lead, the likes of Charles Frohman, Henry Abbey, Oscar Hammerstein and the Shuberts were among the investors and creators of the new theatre district.
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