Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Betty Smith was born on July 6, 1929 in Sileby, Leicestershire, England. She studied the saxophone as a young child and began playing the alto saxophone when she was nine in Archie’s Juveniles, not concentrating on jazz until her early teens.
1947 saw Smith touring the Middle East with pianist Billy Penrose, and then with Ivy Benson’s evening gown clad Girls’ Band, playing for off duty Nuremberg trials officials, and in 1948 with Rudy Starita’s All Girls Band to play for the troops.
Women jazz musician were rare in the Fifties, but Betty, by then playing tenor, proved herself in Freddy Randall’s Dixieland/Chicago styled band. She would be heard swinging, improvising and playing hotter jazz than her colleagues as they toured around Britain.
Following a tour of the U.S. the breakup of Randall’s band, and Betty forming a quintet in 1957, she returned to the States and toured with Bill Haley’s Comets. She worked fronting the Ted Heath Orchestra as a vocalist, got numerous radio and television jobs and had her own program on Radio Luxembourg.
She would meet trumpeter Kenny Baker, form the sextet “Best of British Jazz” and be the band’s only saxophonist for the remainder of her career until she got sick in 1985. She continued to sing and play the piano until a week before her death on January 21, 2011 in Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire, England.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wallace Foster Davenport was born on June 30, 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He started on trumpet at age 13 with The Young Tuxedo Brass Band. In 1941 he played with Papa Celestin before leaving New Orleans to serve in the Navy. Returning home after WWII, Wallace easily transitioned to bop and swing with various bands, recording with Roy Brown and touring Europe and the U.S. with Lionel Hampton and recording with Mezz Mezzrow in 1950s Paris.
Davenport played and recorded with Count Basie in the mid 60s, toured with Ray Charles and Lloyd Price but by the end of the decade returned to traditional jazz, releasing albums on his own label My Jazz from 1971-76. He recorded again in Europe with George Wein in ’74, with Panama Francis and Arnett Cobb in 1976, reunited with Hampton and recorded with Earl Hines this same year.
In the eighties, Davenport worked with both traditional units as The Alliance Hall Dixieland Band and gospel groups like The Zion Harmonizers and Aline White; and backed vocalists Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra. He routinely went on impromptu tours in Asia and Europe, once played expressly for the Norway King Olav V, played regularly at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and received numerous awards and accolades for his musical contributions. Trumpeter Wallace Davenport died in New Orleans, Louisiana, at 78 years of age on March 18, 2004. He was one of the few 1930s traditional trumpeters able to branch out into bop and swing.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ove Lind was born Nils Ove Lind on June 29, 1926 in Stockholm, Sweden who learned to play the clarinet in his youth. He worked as a professional musician from 1946 playing with the Simon Brehm Orchestra in 1949 and followed with Thore Swanerud, Charlie Norman and the sextet Swinging Swedes from 1952-54.
In 1954 he created the Hallberg Almstedt-Lind Quartet with others Gunnar Almstedt and Bengt Hallberg that played swing in Benny Goodman’s spirit. During the 1950s, Lind is also an arranger and studio musician on the record label Metronome.
1963 he formed his own orchestra and became, along with vibraphone player Lars Erstrand a key figure in the revival of swing music that came to be called happy jazz. As of 1968 it has been the music featured at the jazz pub Stampen in Stockholm’s Old Town. Lind would go on to record and perform in trio and quartet combo configurations.
Ove Lind, clarinetist, bandleader, composer and arranger, passed way on April 16, 1991 in Haninge, Sweden.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jimmy Deuchar was born James Deuchar on June 26, 1930 in Dundee, Scotland. Taught trumpet by WWI bugler John Lynch, after national service he began his professional career in the John Dankworth Seven in 1950. He would go on to work with the Oscar Rabin Band, Ronnie Scott, and Kurt Edelhagen’s Orchestra through the decade.
By the Sixties he was working with Tubby Hayes and sitting in with visiting Americans at Ronnie Scott’s club. A highly gifted player and a leading exponent of the “modern” style, he was in demand and achieved success as a touring player in Europe and the United States.
He joined the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band during the late 60 and early 70s, returned to London and freelanced, arranged for the BBC Big Band, the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra and played in a number of settings.
He recorded a number of albums as a leader and sideman beginning in the Fifties utilizing many of his compositions on albums such as The Deuchar Plays Deuchar, Down In The Village, Pal Jimmy and Live In London.
With his health deteriorated, on September 9, 1993 jazz trumpeter and arranger Jimmy Deuchar, who was influenced by Fats Navarro and whose small range was broad and fat toned, passed away at age 63.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill Russo was born William Russo on June 25, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois and studied piano under Lennie Tristano. He would become an arranger and composer and by the 1950s was writing groundbreaking orchestral scores for the Stan Kenton Orchestra. He would compose for Kenton 23 Degrees N 82 Degrees W, Frank Speaking, Portrait of a Count and one of his most famous Halls Of Brass, featuring Buddy Childers, Maynard Ferguson and Milt Bernhart.
By the 60s Russo moved to England, founded the London Jazz Orchestra, and contributed to the Third Stream movement that sought to close the gap between jazz and classical music. Returning to Chicago by mid-decade he founded Columbia College’s music department, became the director of its Center for New Music, the college’s first full-time faculty member and the Director of Orchestral Studies at Scuola Europea d’Orchestra Jazz in Palermo, Italy.
Bill has composed classical symphonies, choral works, operas and several works for the theater. He has received a Koussevitsky award, had his work performed by the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, and has set music to the poetry of Gertrude Stein as well as scores for dance and film.
Russo has worked with Manny Albam, Teo Macero, Teddy Charles, Donald Byrd, Phil Woods, Bill Evans, Eddie Costa, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Art Farmer among others. Starting the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, which is dedicated to preserving and expanding jazz, He was succeeded by Jon Faddis and it is currently under the artistic direction of Dana Hall. Trombonist, composer, arranger, eudcator and author Bill Russo passed away on January 11, 2003 after a bout with cancer. He was 74 years old.
