Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lorraine Winifred Geller was born Lorraine Walsh on September 11, 1928 in Portland, Oregon. She started out with the all-female big band Sweethearts of Rhythm, based in New York. She met saxophonist Herb Geller, married him in 1951, and together they moved to Los Angeles, California where they played with many musicians on the West Coast jazz scene, such as Shorty Rogers, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, and Red Mitchell. She also did sessions with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
In 1957, she accompanied Kay Starr and the following year, concentrating on raising her daughter, she pared down her performances. She did, however, play at the first Monterey Jazz Festival. On October 13, 1958 pianist Lorraine Geller transitioned in Los Angeles, attributed to heart failure or pulmonary infection.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joki Freund was born Walter Jakob Freund on September 5, 1926 in Höchst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He began playing the accordion as a child, switching to tenor saxophone after World War II ended.
Early in the postwar era, he played with Joe Quitter, Carlo Bohlander, Gerry Weinkopf, Joe Klimm, and Jutta Hipp, before forming his own ensemble. He began performing with American musicians, including Donald Byrd, Art Taylor, and Doug Watkins during their European festival appearances.
He went on to play with and arranged for Albert Mangelsdorff in the jazz orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk, and Erwin Lehn in the Süddeutscher Rundfunk orchestra. He played with the Frankfurt Jazz Ensemble on soprano saxophone in the 1970s, also performing as a leader around this time.
Saxophonist Joki Freund, who predominantly played in a quintet setting but also in orchestras or big bands, transitioned on February 15, 2012 in Schwalbach am Taunus, Germany.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Greene was born on September 4, 1922 in New York City, New York. He was active early in his career in Dixieland jazz revival groups, working with Sidney De Paris, Baby Dodds, Conrad Janis, and Johnny Wiggs.
Leaving music for a period, he got a degree from Columbia University and worked in radio and speechwriting, including for Lyndon Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy. After Robert Kennedy’s assassination, he quit speechwriting and returned to jazz in the late 1960s again, working with Zutty Singleton. Focusing on music full-time, Bob worked in the early 1970s with Don Ewell, Albert Nicholas, and the Peruna Jazz Band.
He put together a traveling ensemble which paid tribute to the music of Jelly Roll Morton. They toured worldwide, recorded several albums and among his sidemen in this setting were Danny Barker, Tommy Benford, Herb Hall, Milt Hinton, and Johnny Williams.
The nephew of Paul Blum, a former intelligence officer, he spent time writing his uncle’s biography, which was published in 1998. Pianist and bandleader Bob Greene transitioned on October 13, 2013 in Amagansett, New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leroy “Hog” Cooper ws born on August 31, 1928 in Dallas, Texas and by age twenty, fom 1948 to 1951, he toured with the Ernie Fields territory band. A childhood friend of David Fathead Newman, in 1954 the two played together in the sax section backing Lowell Fulson on his first single for Chess Records, Reconsider Baby.
In 1957, upon the Newman recommendation of Cooper to Ray Charles, who joined Charles’ band the same summer as bassist Edgar Willis, both musicians stayed on with Charles for some twenty years.
Leroy also played, recorded and/or toured with Lightnin’ Hopkins, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, The Righteous Brothers, Dr. John, Del Shannon, Bobby Short, and Joe Cocker.
Performing locally in Orlando, Florida with the Smokin’ Torpedoes & Josh Miller Blues Band till the time of his death, baritone saxophonist Leroy Cooper, who was affectionately known as Hog in the industry, transitioned on January 15, 2009.
Bestow upon an inquiring mind a dose of a Dallas saxophonist to motivate the perusal of the genius of jazz musicians worldwide whose gifts contribute to the canon…
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Three Wishes
When the curious Pannonica posed the question of three wishes to Chico Hamilton he came back with the following answers:
- “Well, I think the first wish would be I want everything wonderful for my wife and my family , because they have sacrificed.”
- “I don’t know. I wish that this God-given talent I have ~ someone will get some good out of it..”
- “I wish I never lose my sense of humor.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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