Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dick Nash: The Trombone Voice Behind Hollywood’s Golden AgeRichard Taylor Nash was born on January 26, 1928, in Boston, Massachusetts, and discovered brass instruments at age ten but it was tragedy that would deepen his commitment to music. After his parents’ death, while living in boarding school, the young Nash threw himself into trumpet and bugle, finding solace and purpose in the discipline and beauty of making music. What began as comfort became calling.

From Big Bands to the Studio
Nash’s first professional work came in 1947 with bands like Tex Beneke’s popular ensemble, a solid apprenticeship with a name bandleader. After serving in the Army, where he continued playing, he joined Billy May’s swinging outfit, gaining experience in the competitive world of post-war big bands.

But Nash’s real destiny was waiting in Los Angeles, where he would become one of the most sought-after studio musicians in the entertainment capital of the world. When producers needed a trombonist who could nail it on the first take, who could read anything, who could deliver both technical perfection and emotional depth, they called Dick Nash.

Mancini’s Secret Weapon
Nash became the favorite trombonist of composer and conductor Henry Mancini, and if you know Mancini’s work, you understand the honor that represents. Mancini wrote sophisticated, jazz-inflected scores that required musicians who could swing, play with taste, and capture specific moods with just a few perfectly placed notes.

Nash was the featured trombone soloist on several iconic Mancini soundtracks: the cool, late-night jazz of Mr. Lucky and Peter Gunn, the exotic adventure of Hatari!, the wistful romance of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the achingly beautiful melancholy of The Days of Wine and Roses.

If you’ve ever heard that gorgeous trombone solo floating over “Moon River” or punctuating the Peter Gunn theme, that’s Dick Nash—his sound became part of America’s collective musical memory, even if most listeners never knew his name.

Equally at Home in Jazz
But Nash wasn’t just a studio musician grinding out commercial work. By 1959, he was playing bass trombone on saxophonist Art Pepper’s brilliant Art Pepper + Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics session—a challenging, ambitious album that showcased Nash’s ability to function in pure jazz settings alongside one of the West Coast’s most intense improvisers.

A Who’s Who of Collaborations
Over the course of his career, Nash remained predominantly associated with swing and big band genres, but his résumé reads like a directory of 20th-century popular music greatness. Besides working on countless film scores, the trombonist performed and recorded with Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry James, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Louie Bellson, Nat King Cole, Mel Tormé, June Christy, Stan Kenton, Les Brown, Don Ellis, Jimmy Witherspoon, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, Erroll Garner, Anita O’Day, Teresa Brewer, Randy Crawford, The Manhattan Transfer, Sonny Criss… and the list goes on.

The Ultimate Professional
Think about that range: from Basie’s driving swing to Sinatra’s intimate balladry, from Kenton’s progressive big band experiments to Ellis’ avant-garde explorations, from pop sessions to pure jazz dates. Nash could do it all, and do it with the kind of musicality that elevated everything he touched.

The Invisible Artist
Dick Nash represents a particular kind of musical excellence that often goes unrecognized: the studio musician who serves the music rather than their own ego, who makes everyone around them sound better, whose artistry is heard by millions but whose name remains known primarily to fellow musicians and serious fans.

He didn’t need the spotlight. He was the light—illuminating countless recordings, soundtracks, and live performances with his warm tone, impeccable technique, and deep musicality.

From a grieving boy in boarding school finding comfort in a bugle to becoming Henry Mancini’s go-to trombonist and one of the most recorded musicians in American history, Dick Nash’s journey reminds us that sometimes the greatest artists are the ones who help others shine.

And if you’ve ever been moved by a film score, charmed by a classic pop recording, or thrilled by a big band arrangement, there’s a good chance Dick Nash’s trombone was part of what made you feel that way—even if you never knew it.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Harold Ousley: The Tenor Voice That Bridged Blues and BebopHarold Lomax Ousley was born January 23, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois—the cradle of electric blues and a proving ground for countless jazz saxophonists. Heavily influenced by the big-toned Gene Ammons, Ousley picked up tenor saxophone and flute in the late 1940s and immediately set about carving out his own path through the rapidly evolving jazz landscape.

Backing the Legends
The 1950s found Ousley in stellar company, recording behind two of the greatest vocalists in American music: Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. Imagine being the saxophonist supporting Holiday’s weathered, emotionally devastating voice, or matching Washington’s powerful, blues-drenched delivery. That’s the kind of education money can’t buy—you either rise to the occasion or get left behind. Ousley rose.

Throughout that decade, he also worked as a sideman with his idol Gene Ammons, absorbing the older master’s approach to tone, phrasing, and the art of making a ballad sing. The 1960s brought collaborations with organist Jack McDuff and a young guitarist named George Benson who was just beginning to make noise on the jazz scene.

Stepping Into the Spotlight
Ousley released his first record as a leader in 1961: Tenor Sax on the Bethlehem label—a straightforward title for a straightforward player who let his horn do the talking. Over the following decades, he would lead five more sessions for Muse, Cobblestone, Digi-Rom, Tele-Jazz, and Delmark labels, each one showcasing different facets of his musical personality.

His 16-bar blues boogaloo “Return of the Prodigal Son” demonstrated his rhythmic flair and compositional chops, but it became better known as a highlight on George Benson’s popular Cookbook album—sometimes your song becomes famous through someone else’s interpretation, and that’s okay.

Weathering the Changes
During the 1970s, Ousley found himself playing with jazz royalty—Lionel Hampton’s swinging vibes-led ensemble and Count Basie’s legendary orchestra. But the musical landscape was shifting beneath everyone’s feet. Fusion was exploding, electric instruments were taking over, and the acoustic hard bop sound Ousley excelled at was suddenly out of fashion. When mainstream jazz resurged in the 1980s, it often favored younger players.

Rather than become bitter, Ousley adapted. He moved into cable television production, creating programming that featured jazz performances and interviews—using a different medium to keep the music and its stories alive. He didn’t record again until the late 1990s, but he never stopped being part of the jazz community.

A Musical Identity
Though Ousley’s playing resided heavily in blues—that Chicago foundation never left him—he quickly cited Charlie Parker as his first model for the hard bop lines that gave his solos their forward momentum and harmonic sophistication. But perhaps the most overlooked aspect of his artistry was the gentler side: the sweet, caressing sound he brought to ballads, where his tone became butter-smooth and his phrasing unhurried, letting every note breathe.

A Life in Service to the Music
Tenor saxophonist Harold Ousley passed away on August 13, 2015, in Brooklyn, New York, having spent nearly seven decades contributing to jazz as a sideman, leader, collaborator, and documentarian.

He may not have achieved the fame of some of his contemporaries, but Harold Ousley represents something equally valuable: the solid professional who showed up, played beautifully, supported the music and the musicians around him, and kept the tradition alive even when the spotlight moved elsewhere.

That’s not just a career—that’s dedication.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Morris “Moe” Koffman was born on December 28, 1928 in Toronto, Canada. At the age of nine he began his musical studies in his native city, studying violin. He attended the Toronto Conservatory of Music, where he was a student of Samuel Dolin.

Dropping out of school when he found work performing in dance bands, in 1950, he moved to the United States, where he played with big bands including those of Sonny Dunham and Jimmy Dorsey. In 1955, he returned to Toronto where he formed a quartet and later a quintet and recorded Swinging Shepherd Blues in 1957 which helped establish his reputation as a flautist.

Koffman was inspired by Rahsaan Roland Kirk to play multiple instruments at once. He had a modified set of straps to hold a tenor and alto saxophones so that he could put forward incredible chords and improvise at the same time. He performed with Dizzy Gillespie and Peter Appleyard during the 1980s, as well as continuing to front the Moe Koffman Quintet. He often performed with Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass.

He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1993 and inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1997.

Saxophonist, flautist, composer and arranger Moe Koffman, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2000, died of cancer in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada on March 28, 2001 at the age of 72.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen was born in New York City, on December 26, 1921. As an only child and with his father dying when he was raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois largely by his mother’s Irish Catholic family. Running away from home at 16 he easily took to begging. A short stint in the Army was derailed by asthma and he was discharged.

He was a pianist and a prolific composer. By his own estimate, he wrote more than 8,500 songs, some of which were recorded by numerous leading singers. Allen won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition for “Gravy Waltz, for which he wrote the lyrics.  His songs have been performed and/or recorded by Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Mark Murphy, Judy Garland, Aretha Franklin, Lionel Hampton, Claire Martin, Oscar Peterson, the McGuire Sisters and Ray Brown among otheres.

He also wrote more than 50 books, including novels, children’s books, and books of opinions, including his final book, Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio published in 2001.

Pianist, composer, writer, actor, comedian, television and radio personality Steve Allen, who in 1954 co-created and was the first host of The Tonight Show, died due to a ruptured blood vessel on October 30, 2000 in Los Angeles, California. He was 78.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Herbert Anthony Charles Spanier was born in Cupar, Canada on December 25, 1928. He played guitar and harmonica at five, bugle in Regina, Canada cadet bands, and trumpet in high school. One of the first beboppers in Canada, and a figure of some legend on the Canadian jazz scene,

He played with Paul Perry and with his own band ‘Boptet’ in Regina before working in Chicago, Illinois from 1949-1950 and from 1950-1954 in Toronto, Canada. He was a sideman to Paul Bley in New York 1954-1955 and Los Angeles, California 1958-1959, and toured out of New York with the Claude Thornhill and Hal McIntyre orchestras in 1955.

He was an influential jazz musician in Montreal, Canada from 1956-1958 and between 1960-1971. Spanier taught briefly at Sir George Williams University, performed in various dance, hotel, and CBC orchestras, contributed music to NFB films. Herbie was the leader on the CBC’s ‘Jazz en Liberté’ and in various clubs. Returning to Toronto in 1971, he was a featured soloist for nine years with Nimmons ‘N’ Nine Plus Six.

For the next two and a half decades he led his own groups, won the Juno Awards, received a Special Recognition Award and recorded sessions in 1993-1994 in which he produced new works which combined with earlier recordings on compact discs.

Trumpeter, flugelhornist, pianist, and composer Herbie Spanier died in Toronto, Canada on December 13, 2001.

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