Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wyatt Robert Ruther was born on February 5, 1923 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Playing trombone in high school before picking up the double-bass, he studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Pittsburgh Musical Institute.
From 1951 to 1952 he played in New York City with Dave Brubeck and Erroll Garner from 1951-55. A sought after bassist Wyatt toured with Lena Horne in 1953 and recorded an album under his own name alongside Milt Hinton in 1955 for RCA Records entitled Basses Loaded. Following this he played with Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1956, then studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada.
While in Canada he played with the Canadian Jazz Quartet for two years beginning in 1956 and then in 1957 with Peter Appleyard. During the same period back in the States, Ruther played with Ray Bryant, Zoot Sims, Bob Brookmeyer, and Chico Hamilton. From the end of the Fifties to the mid~Sixties he toured with George Shearing, went on a world tour with Buddy Rich, played in Gerry Mulligan’s quartet, then joined Count Basie.
In the late 1960s, Wyatt worked freelance in the San Francisco area, and played at the Olympic Hotel in Seattle, Washington in the early Seventies. Moving to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada he played with Fraser MacPherson from 1975 to 1979. He went on to play at the Ankor Hotel in Vancouver in the early 1980s, and while there worked with Sammy Price, Jay McShann, and Dorothy Donegan. Returning to San Francisco in 1984, he played with Stan Getz, Lou Stein, John Handy, Benny Carter, and Jerome Richardson late into thedecade and early Nineties. Bassist Wyatt Ruther played until he passed away of a heart attack at age 76 on October 31, 1999 in San Francisco, California.
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Three Wishes
Nica asked Buddy Montgomery what his three wishes were and he simply said:
- “I can use a whole lot of things! One thing I would like is to get my mind and my hands attached to what I am trying to do, musically. I need to think some more about the others.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Three Wishes
When Monk Montgomery was asked by the Baroness if given what his three wishes would be he responded by telling her:
- “My first wish would be that the older people let the younger people think for themselves.”
- “I wish they would give jazz an opportunity.”
- “I wish I could beat you just one time at Ping-Pong.”
*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…
James Otis Wyble was born on January 25, 1922 in Port Arthur, Texas and in his early years worked for a radio station in Houston. He and guitarist Cameron Hill played Western swing, an outgrowth of jazz, in a band led by Burt “Foreman” Phillips. The sound of two guitars attracted Bob Wills, another fan of Western swing, and he hired both men for his band, the Texas Playboys.
His career interrupted by World War II, he served in the Army from 1942 to 1946, but returned to music after he came home. Jimmy continued to play in Western swing bands, but his interest in jazz surfaced on his 1953 debut album, The Jimmy Wyble Quintet. He would soon work with Barney Kessel and Benny Goodman, and then played with Red Norvo for eight years, including on a tour of Australia accompanying Frank Sinatra.
During the 1960s Wyble took a job as a studio musician in Los Angeles, California working as a guitarist for movies and television, playing on movie soundtracks, including The Wild Bunch, Ocean’s Eleven, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex and Kings Go Forth, and played on TV shows such as The Flip Wilson Show and Kraft Music Hall.
He became an educator after taking classical guitar lessons from Laurindo Almeida, teaching guitar to Larry Koonse, Howard Roberts, Howard Alden and Steve Lukather among others. The 1970s saw Jimmy developing a two-line contrapuntal approach to guitar and composed numerous etudes in this style, publishing Classical/Country, The Art of Two-Line Improvisation, and Concepts for the Classical and Jazz Guitar.
During the 1980s, he left the music business, returning to performance in 2005. Larry Koonse, his former student, issued the album What’s in the Box with compositions by Wyble based on his book of etudes.
Guitarist, composer, and educator Jimmy Wyble continued to perform, record and teach until his death on January 16, 2010.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ray Anthony was born Raymond Antonini on January 20, 1922 into an Italian family in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania but moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he studied the trumpet. From 1940~1941 he played in Glenn Miller’s band and appeared in the Glenn Miller movie Sun Valley Serenade before joining the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war he formed his own group and the Ray Anthony Orchestra became popular in the early 1950s with The Bunny Hop, Hokey Pokey, and the theme from Dragnet. He had a No. 2 chart hit with a remake of the Glenn Miller tune At Last in 1952, the highest charting pop version of the song in the United States.
The following year his orchestra was featured when Helen O’Connell and Bob Eberly headlined a summer replacement program for Perry Como’s CBS television show. From 1953–1954 Ray was musical director of the television series TV’s Top Tunes.
After appearing as himself in the 1955 film Daddy Long Legs and starring in a short-lived television variety show, The Ray Anthony Show. Anthony he revved up his acting appearing in films during the late 1950s. In 1957, Anthony and his orchestra recorded the music score for the film This Could Be The Night, with vocals performed by Julie Wilson.
After his marriage to Mamie van Doren ende so did his brief film career. He continued his musical career and had another hit record with the theme from Peter Gunn, which reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. Among his pianists was Allen “Puddler” Harris, and Kellie Greene, who also played the vibraphone. As a composer he wrote Thunderbird, The Bunny Hop, Trumpet Boogie, Big Band Boogie, and Mr. Anthony’s Boogie. Trumpeter Ray Anthony remains active today.
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