Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Carl Perkins was born August 16, 1928 in Indianapolis, Indiana and as a child suffered with polio. Overcoming a slightly crippled left hand he learned to play piano, holding his arm sideways over the keyboard. His early professional playing came touring with the big bands of Tiny Bradshaw and Big Jay McNeely but then he settled and worked mainly in Los Angeles, becoming a West Coast fixture from 1949 on.

Best known for his performances with the Curtis Counce Quintet, he performed alongside tenor saxophonist Harold Land, trumpeter Jack Sheldon and drummer Frank Butler. In 1954 Carl performed with the Clifford Brown-Max Roach group, and recorded with Frank Morgan in 1955.

Perkins recorded on as a leader for Savoy, Duotone, and Pacific Jazz labels between 1949 and 1957 and for the Boplicity label between 1955-56 titled “Introducing Carl Perkins”. He composed the jazz standard “Grooveyard” that was recorded in a 1958 session led by Harold Land.

Over the course of his short career absent of fame and beleaguered with drug addiction, Perkins recorded with Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Dizzy Gillespie, Jim Hall and Dexter Gordon to name a few.

Carl Perkins, known to be one of the best hard bop pianist of his day, died due to an untimely drug overdose at age 29 on March 17, 1958 in Los Angeles, California.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Thurman Green was born on August 12, 1940 in Texas.  A jazz trombonist, who primary performed in the bebop orientation, spent time playing in Los Angeles with swinging big bands, such as, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. He an occasional member of the Horace Tapscott Quintet, one of many groups headed by the late pianist that no one bothered to record. Thurman was open-eared enough to play quite credibly in free settings now and then.

Thurman recorded as a sideman with Willie Bobo, Donald Byrd and Bobby Hutcherson on the Blue Note label. In 1962, Green and baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett were jamming buddies at the Navy School of Music in Washington D.C. They soon went their separate ways but hoped to team up again some day.

It was thirty-two years later, in 1994, that Bluiett was able to give his old friend his first opportunity to lead his own record date with Dance of the Night Creatures that had pianist John Hicks, bassist Walter Booker or Steve Novosel and drummer Steve Williams. It is a shame that it took over four years for the music to finally come out because Green suddenly died at age 57 on June 19, 1997.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

The Savoy Ballroom was a medium sized ballroom created for music and public dancing located between 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York City. Owned by Jewish gangster Moe Paddon, who some say it was a front for Al Capone, it was in operation from March 12, 1926 to July 10, 1958. It is estimated that the ballroom generated $250,000 in annual profit during its peak years with an admission fee being 30 to 85 cents per person.

As the Savoy was a popular dance venue many dances such as the Lindy Hop became famous here. It was known downtown as the “Home of Happy Feet” but uptown, in Harlem, as “the Track”. Unlike the ‘whites only’ policy of the Cotton Club, the Savoy Ballroom was integrated, and white and black Americans danced together. Virtuosic dancers, however, excluded others from the northeast corner of the dance floor, now referred to as the “Cat’s Corner,” although the term was not used at the time.

The ballroom was 10,000 square feet in size, on the second floor and a block long. It could hold up to 4,000 people. Generally, the clientele was 85% black and 15% white. The ballroom had a double bandstand that held one large and one medium sized band running against its east wall. Music was continuous as the alternative band was always in position and ready to pick up the beat when the previous one had completed its set. The interior was painted pink and the walls were mirrored. The floor had to be replaced every 3 years due to its constant use. The Savoy was unique in having the constant presence of a skilled elite of the best Lindy Hoppers.

Chick Webb was the leader of the best-known Savoy house band during the mid-1930s and a teenage Ella Fitzgerald, fresh from a talent show win at the Apollo Theatre in 1934, became its vocalist. 1934’s big band classic, “Stompin’ at the Savoy” was named after the ballroom.

A famous “Battle of the Bands” or “cutting contest” happened when the Benny Goodman Orchestra challenged Chick Webb in 1937. Webb and his band were declared the winners of that contest. And in 1938 the Count Basie Band did the same. While Webb was officially declared the winner, there was a lack of consensus on who actually won that night. The Savoy participated in the 1939 New York World’s Fair, presenting “The Evolution of Negro Dance”.

Despite to save it, the Savoy and the nearby Cotton Club were demolished for the construction of a housing complex, Bethune Towers/Delano Village. On 26 May 2002, Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, surviving members of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, unveiled a commemorative plaque for the Savoy Ballroom on Lenox Avenue between 140th and 141st Streets.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Idrees Sulieman was born on August 7, 1923, in St. Petersburg, Florida. He studied trumpet and music at the Boston Conservatory, and gained early experience playing with the Carolina Cotton Pickers and the wartime Earl Hines Orchestra in the early Forties.

Sulieman was closely associated with Mary Lou Williams, worked with cab Calloway, John Coltrane, Count Basie and Lionel Hampton. He recorded with Coleman Hawkins and gigged with Randy Weston in the 50s, toured with Oscar Dennard through Europe in 1961, and then settled in Stockholm, moving to Copenhagen in 1964.

A major soloist with The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Band in the mid-’60s through 1973, and frequently worked with radio orchestras. Idrees recorded as a leader for Swedish Columbia and SteepleChase, he played in the 1985 big band of Miles Davis on the album “Aura,” which was released in 1989. He worked and recorded some twenty-two albums as a leader and sideman with Teddy Charles, Mal Waldron, Lester Young, Cedar Walton, Sam Jones, Billy Higgins, Horace Parlan and Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson among others.

Hard bop trumpeter Idrees Sulieman’s career slowed down considerably in the ’90s as he aged and he died of bladder cancer on July 23, 2002 at St. Anthony’s Hospital in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Tony Bennett was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926 in Astoria, Queens, New York City. Growing up in New York City he began singing at an early age, at 10 at the ribbon cutting of the Triborough Bridge and by thirteen singing for money in various restaurants.

Developing his technique after World War II, in 1949,Pearl Bailey recognized his talent and asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village, in which Bob Hope was in attendance. The performance ultimately had Hope taking Benedetto on the road and shortening his name to Tony Bennett. He then cut a demo of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and was signed to Columbia Records by Mitch Miller.

With Columbia Records he had his first number one hit with “Because Of You” in 1951. This was followed by several hits throughout the decade as he furthered his approach to jazz singing. By 1962 Tony recorded his signature tune “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” but unfortunately his career suffered an extended downturn with the onset of the rock era.

Launching a comeback some twenty years later, by the end of the 80s and for the next decade Bennett released a series of gold albums and expanded his audience to the MTV generation. He has worked with Art Blakey, Count Basie, Herbie Mann, Nat Adderley, Candido Camero, Jo Jones, Kenny Burrell and Chico Hamilton.

Bennett list of accomplishments include 17 Grammys, two Emmys, being named a NEA Jazz Master and Kennedy Center Honoree, selling over 50 million records worldwide and participating in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches during the Civil rights Movement. He is also a serious and accomplished painter having created works that are on permanent public display in several institutions and is the founder of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in New York City. He continues to record, perform and tour.

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