Three Wishes

Louis Bellson was talking with Nica and during the conversation she asked him what three wishes he would ask for if they could be given and this was his answer:

1. 1. “That jazz music would become an integral part of all music. And I hope that the American people would consider it a part of American creative art. Because I feel that its music potential has a place alongside all other great music of the world. And also it should be respected and the musicians should be respected too, because I feel in the future there is going to be a greater tie~in with symphony music.”

   2. “I hope that all the young fine musicians today who are interested in jazz as a creative art have the opportunity to express themselves. By this I mean there are no clubs or places where the youngster can gain knowledge and learn his craft. It is shameful to know that there are many gigantic industries in every other form, but our creative form suffers the most.”

   3. “I am hoping that music will mend the entire world. It has been proven that our relations with other countries has been one hundred percent pure in friendship because of music. I feel that music will blossom into a flower, and that flower will express one great thought, and that is: We belong to the human race and we all learn the same notes.”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

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Three Wishes

Gerry Mulligan was approached by Pannonica and asked if he could be granted three wishes what his be and his response was:

1. “To play high trumpet accurately, drums, sing. And if there was a fourth, money.”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Edward Valentine Bonnemère was born on February 15, 1921 in Harlem, New York and during his school days was a church pianist. After military service in World War II he played with Claude Hopkins, and received his master’s degree from New York University.

In 1953 Eddie led a combo with Ray Barretto in the Savoy Ballroom. In 1955, he had a Mambo band, then in 1956 moved to Detroit, Michigan and became part of the house band at  Baker’s Keyboard Lounge. He released a 10-inch album Ti-Pi-Tin / Five O’Clock Whistle on the Royal Roost label. He followed in 1959 with his trio recording Piano Bon-Bons and in 1960 The Sound of Memory. By 1964, with the participation of Kenny Burrell, he released his Jazz Orient-ed album on Prestige Records.

The mid-1960s, Bonnemère was one of the protagonists of an Africanization of the Catholic Mass spearheaded by Fr Clarence Rivers, as part of the Black Catholic Movement. Influenced by Mary Lou Williams he composed the Missa Hodierna for jazz ensemble and choir, which was first presented in 1966 during a service in Harlem’s St. Charles Borromeo Church. It was the first Jazz Mass ever in the United States. This mass was also performed in the Town Hall together with Howard McGhee’s instrumental composition Bless You.

In later years he worked as a church musician and composed the Missa Laetare and other liturgical works. He was also musical director of the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Manhattan, New York whose choir recorded his Mass for Every Season.

Pianist and composer Eddie Bonnemère transitioned on March 19, 1996 in New York City.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Elliott Lawrence was born Elliott Lawrence Broza on February 14, 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were radio and television variety show pioneers who created and produced the long running Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour.

Growing up in this show business environment, Lawrence began studying piano at the age of three. His first public performance was at age four conducting the orchestra on the Children’s Hour stage show. At six he wrote his first composition, Falling Down Stairs, and was stricken with polio, from which he recovered. By the age of 12, he had formed his first band, a 15-piece unit called The Band Busters, and began doing club dates on the weekends. Finishing high school at age 16 he entered the University of Pennsylvania. During his junior year his band, now named The Elliot Broza Orchestra, began playing college proms around the state. At Penn, majoring in symphonic conducting under Harl McDonald, he was offered the position as assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra upon graduation.

Changing his name to Elliot Lawrence when he became the music director of WCAU’S House Band in 1945, they premiered on the radio as The Elliot Lawrence Orchestra. From 1946 to 1954, the band toured around the United States year round, while recording for Decca, Columbia, RCA, Fantasy, and Vik records. In 1949, the band performed a three-week stint with the Nat King Cole Trio at the Paramount Theater in New York City, during which time it recorded Gerry Mulligan’s Elevation, later named “one of the top 50 best jazz recordings of the 20th century” by the Smithsonian Institution.

Landing in New York City in 1955 as the big band era came to a close, he began to do radio shows such as The Red Buttons show, the Jack Sterling Show and hosted Melody Street. He went to the Soviet Union with Ed Sullivan, met Gower Champion and became his musical director on his Bye Bye Birdie, which garnered him a Tony nomination. After 1960, Lawrence gave up jazz and began composing and arranging for television, film, and stage. He won the Tony Award for his second show, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 1962. This led to a 16-year career as a Broadway Conductor and musical director and later to his almost 50-year career as the “go to” conductor for big television events and specials.

As a composer, he scored the movies Network and The French Connection, won nine Emmy awards for musical direction, and was music director for the TonyAwards. Pianist, bandleader and conductor Elliott Lawrence transitioned on July 2, 2021 at the age of 96 in Manhattan, New York.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Edward “Bruno” Carr was born on February 9, 1928 in The Bronx, New York. Growing up he lived around many different ethnic groups, including neighborhoods with German and Italian residents. Listening to the radio as a youth, he heard different styles of music while developing his ear and his memory. By the time he started playing professionally he had anarsenal of songs that he surprised band leaders he already knew and had no need for charts when they handed them to him.

As a timbale player in Latin bands, one can hear the inflection in the way he plays his small tom-toms at times. Though not a household name, his playing with a lot of fire and conviction made him a sought after drummer among the jazz elite. Kenny Burrell, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Michael Franks, Aretha Franklin, Monte Alexander, Stanley Turrentine, Roy Ayers, King Curtis and Harry “Sweets” Edison have all had him on their bandstand.

Here recorded several single albums, each with Aretha, Curtis Amy, Walter Davis Jr., Lou Donaldson, and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, however, his largest body of work was with Herbie Mann, recording eighteen albums with the flutist from 1964 to 1970.

Drummer Bruno Carr, who was a frequent collaborator with Ray Charles, transitioned from lung cancer on October 25, 1993 in Denver Colorado at the age of 65.

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