Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Bently Boone was born on February 24, 1930 in Little Rock, Arkansas and began singing in a Baptist church choir as a boy. By age twwelve he was playing the trombone. He went on to serve in the U.S. Army from 1948 to 1953 where he played trombone in a military band. Following his discharge from the Army, he returned to Little Rock to study music at Philander Smith College.
In 1956 Boone moved to Los Angeles, California where he played with Dolo Coker, Sonny Criss, and Dexter Gordon. Working in the backup band for Della Reese between 1962 and 1966, he then became a member of the Count Basie band. A few years later he left Basie and emigrated to Copenhagen, Denmark and mking it his home, performed with the Ernie Wilkins Big Band.
Trombonist and scat singer Richard Boone passed away in Copenhagen on February 8, 1999.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nelson Boyd was born on February 6, 1928 in Camden, New Jersey. He played in local orchestras in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 1945, and then moved to New York City in 1947.
While living there Boyd first performed with Coleman Hawkins, Tadd Dameron, and Dexter Gordon. He would go on to play with Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Barnet in 1948. In 1947, he recorded with Fats Navarro and Charlie Parker. He later played with Jay Jay Johnson and recorded with Miles Davis on Davis’s Birth of the Cool sessions in 1949. In addition, Davis’s song “Half Nelson” was named after Boyd because of his stature.
After 1949, Nelson often played with Gillespie and toured the Middle East with him in 1956. Later, he recorded with Melba Liston in 1958 with her trombone ultimates on Melba Liston and Her ‘Bones. He also did sessions with Max Roach and Thelonious Monk.
He recorded four albums with Gillespie, and one each with Milt Jackson, Charles McPherson, Max Roach, and Sonny Stitt, Bud Powell, and J. J. Johnson. Bebop bassist Nelson Boyd, whose last recordings were in 1964, passed away in October 1985.
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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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