Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Fred Taylor was born in Boston, Massachusetts on June 29, 1929 and was raised in nearby Newton, Massachusetts. He studied piano as a youth and played drums but it was jazz where he found his calling. Captivated by bebop in the 1940s and ’50s, he got a degree from Boston University, with jazz as his major area of study, seeing live shows, collecting albums, listening to the radio, and simply hanging out. While gaining his jazz legs he worked at his parents’ mattress and upholstery business.

Taylor first started promoting a mix of jazz and folk acts around Boston in 1961. In 1965 he and his business partner Tony Mauriello bought two nightclubs, and renamed them Paul’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop, where the who’s-who of modern jazz, from legends of the bebop generation to young innovators of the fusion era.

When the two venues closed in 1978 the partners bought a movie theater and ran it for eight years. During that period Miles Davis came out of retirement with a new band and asked Taylor to promote his comeback gigs, and his coming-out party in Boston became international news, and the material recorded at Kix was later released on the album We Want Miles, named after the chants that greeted Davis and the group at those first shows.

In 1990 he took over the lounge at the Embassy Suites Hotel which eventually became a full-fledged jazz venue called Scullers. Under his leadership, the club became an essential part of the local music landscape.

Fred then took a young saxophonist named Grace Kelly under his wing, whom he met when she was just 13 years old. He became both Kelly’s mentor and advocate, recommending her to everyone and anyone in the jazz community. Their relationship reflects a lifelong pattern of seeking out new artists, presenting them as performers, and then working to raise both the industry and the public’s awareness of their importance.

In a move that was widely unpopular in Boston and even drew national criticism, Hilton Hotels, the owner of Scullers, terminated its relationship with Taylor in 2016. This ended his reign of more than a quarter-century at the club. At 87 years old, he continued to promote Kelly and other artists he believed in. During his last few years, he finished his autobiography and fought the cancer that would eventually end his life. Jazz impressario Fred Taylor died on October 26, 2023.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Leon Calvert was born on June 26, 1927 in Westcliffe-on-Sea, England and learned to play the trumpet in his childhood. His family moved to Manchester, England while he was very young. His first professional job was with Jack Nieman’s Band at the Plaza in Manchester and by 1945 he was on the London circuit. From late 1947 he performed on the ocean liner Mauretania with Paul Lombard.

Joining Oscar Rabin’s band in 1948, that year he was one of the ten musician co-founders of Club Eleven in Great Windmill Street, and later Carnaby Street. While at the club he played with the house band led by John Dankworth. During the late Forties and into the Fifties Calvert worked with the Ambrose band (1949), the Steve Race Bop Band (1949), Tito Burns (1950–1951) and then for four years with Carroll Gibbons. In the mid-1950s he had stints with Ken Moule, Buddy Featherstonhaugh, the London Jazz Orchestra and Denny Boyce. In the late 1950s he worked with Tony Crombie and Vic Lewis.

The 1960s saw Calvert operating a jazz label at Lansdowne Studios with drummer Barry Morgan, Monty Babson and Jerry Allen. In 1967 the group founded Morgan Sound Studio which ventured outside the jazz idiom and became the location for rock recordings by Joan Armatrading, Black Sabbath, The Cure, Donovan, Jethro Tull, The Kinks, Paul McCartney, Cat Stevens, Rod Stewart, and numerous more.

In 1961 he took over from Dick Hawdon as lead trumpeter for the John Dankworth Orchestra. He can be heard on many Ken Moule and Dankworth recordings of this period, his style influenced by the early work of Miles Davis. He was featured on Johnny Scott’s London Swings in 1966.

The 1970s saw Calvert recording with Richard Rodney Bennett on his Jazz Calendar Suite and on Tony Kinsey’s Thames Suite. He worked mostly as a freelance musician for radio, television and film. As a session trumpeter he recorded with John Baryy, and The Beatles. In the 1980s, Calvert sometimes played as a duo with pianist Jack Honeybourne, and he continued playing at small jazz venues into the 1990s, with the Sounds of Seventeen, Jazz Spell and George Thorby’s Band.

Bebop jazz trumpeter Leon Calvert, who was one of the co-founders of Club Eleven, died on May 1, 2018 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England at the age of 90.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mat Mathews was born Mathieu Hubert Wijnandts Schwarts on June 18, 1924 in The Hague, Netherlands and learned to play accordion while the country was still under the Nazi rule during World War II. It was after hearing Joe Mooney on a radio broadcast after the war that he decided to play jazz.

Moving to New York City in 1952, Mat formed a quartet which included Herbie Mann. He also worked and or recorded with Kenny Clarke, Art Farmer, Percy Heath, Carmen McRae, Oscar Pettiford, Joe Puma, Milt Jackson and Julius Watkins.

He worked mainly as a session musician in the late 1950s, and returned to the Netherlands in 1964, where he worked as an arranger, session musician, and record producer. In the 1970s, he again worked in the United States with Charlie Byrd, Doug Duke, Marian McPartland, and Clark Terry.

Accordionist, arranger, record producer Mat Mathews, who recorded eight albums as a leader, died on February 12, 2009 in Clarence Center, New York.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Gösta Theselius (was born June 9, 1922 in Stockholm, Sweden and was the younger brother of musician Hans Theselius.

He worked in the 1940s with a number of European big bands, including those of Thore Jederby, Hakan von Eichwald, Sam Samson, Lulle Elboj, and Thore Ehrling.

He played jazz into the 1950s, both as a saxophonist and a pianist. The latter instrument with Benny Bailey, Arne Domnerus, James Moody, and Charlie Parker, and composed copiously for film in the 1950s and 1960s.

Arranger, composer, film scorer, pianist and saxophonist Gösta Theselius died in Stockholm on January 24, 1976.

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Daily Dose Of Jaz…

Zalman “Porky” Cohen was born on June 2, 1924 in Springfield, Massachusetts and began performing publicly in his mid-teens, and studied with trombonist Miff Mole. By 19 he was playing with the Charlie Barnet Orchestra, often featured as a soloist.  Stints with Tony Pastor and Glen Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra followed, and in 1948 during the segregation era in the jazz and blues worlds, he was one of a few white musicians to perform with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra.

Porky married, settled down and limited his performing career to local gigs in Rhode Island and southeastern New England. He did, however, join the Grammy winning jump-blues band Roomful Of Blues from 1981 to 1987, touring all over the U.S. and Europe. During this phase of his career, he recorded with jump-blues greats Big Joe Turner, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Jimmy Witherspoon and Earl King.

Having had enough of the rigors of constant touring, in 1987 he returned to Providence, Rhode Island and again played with various area bands. He continued performing until increasitg ill-health sidelined him Trombonist Porky Cohen died of complications resulting from a stroke on April 14, 2004 at age 79 in Providence.

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