Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Lee McFadden was born on August 6, 1928 in Baltimore, Maryland and as a small child tried the piano but later settled on guitar. After his military service, he concentrated on jazz guitar. By the 1950s the guitarist was playing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania clubs. From 1957-58 he was in organist Jimmy Smith’s band and recorded a dozen albums with Smith as part of a trio and sextet. The trio included Donald Bailey on drums.
Staying with organists he next joined Johnny “Hammond” Smith and during the period 1960–63 and one more in 1966, McFadden made eight recordings. Two further sideman appearances on albums came to fruition in the late 1970s.
In November 1967, the Al Grey & Eddie McFadden Quartet played at Count Basie’s Lounge in New York. During the late Seventies he recorded with Sonny Phillips and Don Patterson.
Guitarist Eddie McFadden, who also wrote music for some of his bands, passed away on September 23, 1992 in Philadelphia.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Earl Bowman Swope was born on August 4, 1922 in Hagerstown, Maryland into a musical family: his parents, a sister and two brothers were all musicians. When he was 20, he played with Sonny Dunham.
During the Forties, from 1943~47 he played with Boyd Raeburn, Georgie Auld, and Buddy Rich. Then, from 1947 to 1949 he worked with Woody Herman and recorded in small groups with Stan Getz and Serge Chaloff. The Fifties began with Earl working with Elliot Lawrence, then worked freelance in New York and Washington, D.C.
Later in the 1950s he returned to big band work, playing with Jimmy Dorsey and Louie Bellson. Residing in Washington, D.C. in the 1960s he played locally until his death. Trombonist Earl Swope, whose style was not influenced by J. J. Johnson and played in a modern barrelhouse style, passed away on January 3, 1968.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roy Crimmins was born in London, England on August 2, 1929. Originally self-taught, he was later mentored by the American bass trombonist with the Philarmonia Orchestra, Ray Premru, and the then Ted Heath principal trombonist, Don Lusher. He turned professional when he joined the Mick Mulligan band in 1952.
Collaborating with Alex Welsh in 1954, the pair started their own band and recorded with American guest stars such as the clarinetist Pee Wee Russell and Wild Bill Davison. For the next decade they performed until Roy moved to Germany in 1965 where he kept a consistent line-up and a regular group. Residing in Switzerland from 1970 until 1977 he formed his own band under the pseudonym Roy King and recorded three albums.
Touring Europe extensively during this era, he had his own television show in Vienna, Austria for five years. The late 1970s saw Crimmins returning to England and working once again with Welsh until he died in 1982. In the mid-1980s he was approached to join his Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington orchestras,interpreting the original Lawrence Brown, Tricky Sam Nanton and Juan Tizol trombone solos. He performed at the Nice and North Sea Jazz Festivals.
As an advisor to the Mayor of Eilat, Israel, his involvement in this venture led to the renowned Red Sea Jazz Festival. Soon after, Roy and his family moved to Tel Aviv, Israel where he established the Israel Jazz Ensemble, and was commissioned by Musica Nova to write a concerto, which premiered in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art to great acclaim. His music is still broadcast regularly.
Trombonist, composer and arranger Roy Crimmins, whose career spanned over fifty years, passed away on August 27, 2014 at the age of 85. He is buried on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William E. Clark was born July 31, 1925 in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He worked professionally starting shortly after World War II, playing drums with Jimmy Jones, Dave Martin, Mundell Lowe, and George Duvivier.
He was principally active in the 1950s, working with Lester Young, Mary Lou Williams, Lena Horne, Hazel Scott, Duke Ellington, Don Byas, Arnold Ross, Bernard Peiffer, George Shearing, Toots Thielemans, Ronnell Bright, Jackie Paris, and Rolf Kuhn. Later in his career Bill worked with Eddie Harris and Les McCann.
Drummer Bill Clark, known for his versatility playing Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde and fusion, passed away on July 30, 1986 in Atlanta, Georgia.Share a dose of a Jonesboro drummer to inspire inquisitive minds to learn about musicians whose legacy lends their genius to the jazz catalog…
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roy Lee Porter was born on July 30, 1923 in Walsenburg, Colorado and when he was eight his family moved to Colorado Springs. He began playing drums in rhythm and blues bands while a teenager, then attended Wiley College in Texas briefly, where trumpeter Kenny Dorham was a fellow student.
Replacing Joe Marshall he joined Milt Larkin’s band in 1943. After military service, Roy settled in Los Angeles, California and soon was in demand by some of the pioneers of bebop. He worked with Teddy Bunn and Howard McGhee, making his first recordings with the latter. In 1946, he backed Charlie Parker on such Dial classics, A Night In Tunisia, Yardbird Suite, Ornithology and Lover Man.
Porter played on Los Angeles’ Central Avenue with such bebop players as Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray and Teddy Edwards, and in San Francisco, California with Hampton Hawes and Sonny Criss. He organized a big band and went on the road in 1949 that included Art Farmer, Jimmy Knepper and Eric Dolphy.
During the 1950s he was inactive as a jazz musician due to drug problems and returned to music only infrequently afterwards. Drummer Roy Porter passed away on January 24 or 25, 1998 in Los Angeles.
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