Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herbie Lovelle was born June 1, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York. His uncle was drummer Arthur Herbert. He began his career in the late 1940s with the trumpeter, singer and bandleader Hot Lips Page. By the 1950s he was playing with the saxophonist Hal Singer, Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers and the pianist Earl Hines.
Through working for both Lucky Thompson and Jimmy Rushing of Count Basie’s Orchestra, he became house drummer at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City for much of the 1950s. He toured with the tenor saxophonist Arnett Cobb and the pianist Teddy Wilson in 1954.
He contributed to the pianist Paul Curry’s album Paul Curry Presents the Friends of Fats in 1959. Then in the early years of television, Herbie performed with the King Guion Orchestra on the Jerry Lester Show and the Ed Sullivan Show. In 1966, he was the lead drummer for the Sammy Davis, Jr. TV show.
During the 1950s Lovelle began playing more R&B and worked as a studio musician recording behind Sam Taylor, Bob Dylan, Pearls Before Swine, Eric Andersen, David Blue, John Denver, Tom Rush, B. B. King, John Martyn, the Strangeloves, the McCoys, and the Monkees. He continued working as a studio musician well into the 1980s.
In 1976, he produced the first album by Stuff, which went platinum in Japan. He also played drums in the 1976 revival of Guys and Dolls. From the 1980s on he acted in film and television, on such shows as Law & Order and Third Watch. His film credits ~ A Man Called Adam, Bella, Mitchellville, The Rhythm of the Saints, Don’t Explain, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, and Down to Earth among others.
His list of recordings as a studio musician extended across genres to some six dozen albums with jazz notables Candido Camero, Buck Clayton , Art Farmer, Herbie Mann, Sonny Stitt, Budd Johnson, Buddy Tate, Chico O’Farrill, Evie Sands, Johnny Hodges, Nat Adderley, Tony Bennett, Illinois Jacquet and numerous others. Drummer, producer and actor Herbie Lovelle transitioned on April 8, 2009 in New York City.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Armando Peraza was born May 30, 1924 in Lawton Batista, Havana, Cuba and was orphaned by age 7 and lived on the streets. By twelve he was supporting himself by selling vegetables, coaching boxing, playing semi-pro baseball, and becoming a loan shark. His music career began at seventeen when he heard at a baseball game that bandleader Alberto Ruiz was looking for a conga player and Ruiz’s brother was on the same baseball team as him. Despite the absence of experience in music, he practiced and won the audition.
He left Cuba for Mexico in 1948 to tend to his sick friend, conga drummer Mongo Santamaría. They arrived in New York City in 1949 and after playing in Machito’s big band, Peraza was invited by Charlie Parker to participate in a recording session that included Buddy Rich. He recorded with Slim Gaillard in New York Cuty in 1949 in a session that produced Bongo City and toured the U.S. with him band until they reached San Francisco, California. He spent time in Mexico recording with Perez Prado and did some soundtracks for the Mexican movie industry.
Returning to the U.S. he settled in San Francisco, worked with Dizzy Gillespie, toured extensively with Charles Mingus and Dexter Gordon, and played with Puerto Rican actor and musician Tony Martinez. Armando led an Afro-Cuban dance review at the Cable Car Village Club in San Francisco, attracting a clientele from Hollywood that included Errol Flynn, Marlon Brando, and Rita Hayworth.
By 1954, he was working with pianist Dave Brubeck, Peraza met Cal Tjader, and jazz critic Leonard Feather recommended Peraza to Fantasy Records to record an Afro-Cuban album with Tjader. The result was Ritmo Caliente, which combined Afro-Cuban rhythms with a jazz sensibility. Following this he met George Shearing through bassist Al McKibbon and he spent the next twelve years with the pianist, a collaboration that put Peraza at the forefront of Afro-Cuban music.
Armando emerged as a composer, writing and recording twenty-one songs for Shearing, such as Mambo in Chimes, Mambo in Miami, Ritmo Africano, Armando’s Hideaway, This is Africa, and Estampa Cubana. These recordings were during the mambo craze in the U.S. and the world. In 1959, he joined Mongo Santamaría for the Mongo album, then became a member of Cal Tjader’s band for six years, followed by a stint with drummer Shelly Manne.
He recorded one solo album, Wild Thing, was the first Afro-Cuban percussionist to add conga drums to a rock track, an in 1972, at the age of 47, Peraza joined the rock band Santana, influencing andtrmining for nearly twenty years and played to millions of people around the world, partnering with percussionists José Areas, Mingo Lewis, Raul Rekow, and Orestes Vilató. He wrote or co-wrote sixteen songs recorded by Santana.
Peraza retired from Santana in 1990 at the age of 66, played a Santiago de Chile concert with Santana in 1992, returned to Cuba after fifty year absence in 202, and recorded on the John Santos, 20th Anniversary in 2005, At 82 years of age, in 2006 he made a rare appearance with Santana for a three show performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. In 2007, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Voices of Latin Rock, who present the Armando Peraza Award for achievement in the San Francisco Bay Area every year.
On April 14, 2014 Latin jazz percussionist Armando Peraza who played congas, bongos, and timbales transitioned from complications of pneumonia. He was 89.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Kenneth Brooks, Jr. was born May 29, 1922 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the older brother of Tina Brooks. His first professional gig was with the medicine show of Pepper McAllister.
He served in the Army during World War II where he played with James Moody. He moved to New York City after his discharge in 1944, where he played at Minton’s Playhouse and the Harlem Grill. He toured North Carolina in a band alongside Sonny Payne in 1947, then played with George Barkley at the Baby Grand in New York. He first recorded with Barkley around 1947 or 1948, then went on to play with Sonny Thompson from 1948 to 1957.
In 1958 he worked with Jimmy McCracklin and in 1961 with Phil Upchurch. While doing session work with pop musicians in the 1960s. From 1967 to 1973 he played at the Fantasy East in New York City with alto saxophonist Charles Williams and Don Pullen, recording three albums as a trio for Mainstream Records.
After a short run with Jimmy McGriff in 1974, Brooks became a member of Bill Doggett’s ensemble, where he remained for two decades from 1976 to 1996. He worked in the middle of the 1990s with Bross Townsend, Carrie Smith, and the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, and toured France with Al Casey in 1999.
He recorded with Wynonie Harris, Phil Upchurch, Charles Williams, Bill Doggett, Bross Townsend, Michel Pastre, Joseph Carter, and Bobby Forrester. Tenor saxophonist David Kenneth Brooks, Jr., better known as Bubba Brooks or Bubber Brooks, transitioned on April 11, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Arno Marsh was born on May 28, 1928 in Grand Rapids, Michigan and played early on in local dance bands, then played in Woody Herman’s ensemble from 1951 to 1953, where he soloed frequently on Herman’s Mars Records releases.
He led a band in a Grand Rapids residency from 1953 to 1955, then rejoined Herman intermittently through 1958. He recorded with Stan Kenton, Charlie Barnet, Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, and Harry James. After the late 1950s most of Marsh’s activity was in Las Vegas, Nevada leading hotel orchestras. He accompanied Nancy Wilson on record with one of them in 1968, and did a Woody Herman tribute in 1974.
Tenor saxophonist Arno Marsh transitioned at the age of 91 on July 12, 2019.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thomas Bryant was born May 21, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in a musical family. His mother was a choir director, his brother Ray was a pianist, and another brother, Len Bryant, is a vocalist and drummer. He began playing bass at the age of 12 and played in many local outfits.
The late Forties saw Bryant join Elmer Snowden’s band, staying there until 1952, when he took a tour of duty during the Korean War. In 1956 he returned and formed his own trio, though he never recorded as a leader, he recorded seventeen albums as a sideman.
He is better known for his work with his brother Ray, as well as Jo Jones, Charlie Shavers, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Barney Wilen, Benny Golson, Big Joe Turner, Hank Mobley, Curtis Fuller, Lee Morgan, Billy Root and Coleman Hawkins.
In the last ten years of his life he played in the follow-up band to The Ink Spots. Double bassist Tommy Bryant, who also recorded with Mahalia Jackson under the name Tom Bryant, transitioned on January 3, 1982.
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