Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rolf Kühn was born on September 29, 1929 in Köln, Germany, the older brother of the pianist Joachim Kühn. He started out playing in dance bands in the late ’40s, then worked with radio orchestras starting in 1952 before moving west across the Atlantic to America.
Living in the United States for three years from 1956 to 1959, subbing for Benny Goodman on a few occasions, played in the Tommy Dorsey ghost band, and worked in a big band led by Urbie Green. Rolf drew favorable reviews, and over the course of his career, he recorded more than two-dozen albums as a leader, ten with his younger brother, and as a sideman, eighteen.
He has recorded with Eddie Costa, Buddy DeFranco,Klaus Doldinger, Tommy Dorsey, European Jazz Ensemble, Urbie Green, Friedrich Gulda, Greetje Kauffeld, Eartha Kitt, Albert Mangelsdorff, Oscar Pettiford, and George Wallington.
In 2008 he founded a band with Christian Lillinger, Ronny Graupe, and Johannes Fink. In 2019, the New York Times Magazine listed him among the hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. Clarinetist and saxophonist Rolf Kühn at 90 continued to perform and compose for the next two years until his passing on August 18, 2022 in Berlin, Germany.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jack Allan was born on September 28, 1929 in Sydney, Australia. As a child, he began playing accordion before switching to the piano in his teens. While working in Sydney cabarets and clubs, he was heavily influenced by swing-era pianists, especially Teddy Wilson. He became one of the few Australian musicians to play the early post-war modern jazz styles.
In 1949 Allan’s recording debut was as a member of the Rex Stewart And His Sydney Six. The following year he made his first recordings as a leader with his group the Katzenjammers. During the early 50s they performed and recorded frequently with a variety of personnel, including Ken Silver, Don Burrows, Errol Buddle, John Bamford and Edwin Duff. The mid-50s had him beginning an acting career and with his generous bulk was often cast as a villain, an amiable bar patron, or playing a musician. His film credits include On The Beach, Ned Kelly, They’re A Weird Mob, and Caddie, as well as numerous television appearances.
Maintaining his musical prowess, Jack’s performances however became spasmodic. In 1983 he recorded with percussionist John Sangster and in the following year made a tasteful, swinging solo album for the Anteater label. Moving north to the Sunshine Coast, he lived in semi-retirement with occasional acting and musical activity.
Pianist Jack Allan, a reliable studio musician with the ABC and a writer/director for musical revues, passed away on February 7, 1995 on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Overton Smith was born on September 22, 1926 in Sacramento, California and grew up in Oakland, California where he began playing clarinet at the age of ten. Putting together a jazz group to play for dances at 13, by 15 he joined the Oakland Symphony. Idolizing Benny Goodman, after high school and a brief cross-country tour with a dance band, he ended his romance for the road. Giving notice when the band reached Washington, D.C., he was encouraged by an older band member to get the best education he could, so he headed to New York.
He started his formal music studies at the Juilliard School of Music, playing in New York jazz clubs at night. Uninspired at Juilliard, he returned to California after hearing the music of Darius Milhaud, who was then teaching at Mills College in Oakland. At Mills, Smith met pianist Dave Brubeck, with whom he often played, was a member of the Dave Brubeck Octet, and later occasionally subbed for saxophonist Paul Desmond in the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Brubeck’s 1960 album Brubeck à la mode that featured ten of his own compositions. Rejoining Brubeck’s group in the 1990s.
Bill went on to study composition with Roger Sessions at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was graduated with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. He won the Prix de Paris, study at the Paris Conservatory, was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1957, and spent six years in Italy. After a teaching stint at the University of Southern California, he went on to a thirty-year career at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle, Washington. He co-led the forward-thinking Contemporary Group, first with Robert Suderburg, and then with trombonist Stuart Dempster, from 1966 to 1997.
Clarinetist and composer Bill Smith, who recorded in jazz, classical and third stream genres, passed away at age 93 in his home from complications of prostate cancer on February 29, 2020.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz
Fred Hunt was born Herbert Frederick Hunt was born in London, England on September 21, 1923. As the younger son of a pianist mother and a cellist father, he enjoyed thorough musical education from his distinguished parents. A self-taught pianist, he started playing piano at the age of 13 and played local gigs before joining the Royal Air Force.
After his discharge, Hunt began his musical career playing semi-professionally with Mike Daniels and the Cy Laurie Four in 1951. Becoming professional and went on to join Alex Welsh’s band from 1954 to 1962 and again from 1964 to 1974.
As Welsh’s primary pianist, and often a featured soloist, he became one of Britain’s leading trad jazz musicians and recorded with Eddie Davis, Bud Freeman, Eddie Miller, and Ben Webster in 1967. Accompanying visiting Americans, he recorded with the four-tenor group, Tenor Of Jazz, featuring Webster and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, which toured in the late 60s.
Departing Welsh in 1974, he played in Copenhagen and South Africa, however, after 1976 he split his time between Britain, Denmark, and Germany. He led a trio featuring drummer Lennie Hastings beginning in 1978 and the following year the German label Erus Records released a direct cut LP called Yesterdays which featured his trio with bassist Brian Mursell and drummer Roger Nobes in front of a live audience.
He toured with Wild Bill Davison in the latter part of the 1970s and played with Welsh once more in the early 1980s before retiring due to failing health after being incapacitated and confined to a wheelchair. He worked frequently at London’s PizzaExpress Jazz Club until 1986. Pianist Fred Hunt, who became a top pianist in both modern jazz and trad jazz musical settings, passed away on April 25, 1986. in Weybridge, Surrey aged 62.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill DeArango was born William Louis DeArango on September 20, 1921 in Cleveland, Ohio. A self-taught on guitar, while attending Ohio State University, he played with Dixieland bands at night. After serving in the Army from 1942–44, he moved to New York City and worked first with Don Byas and Ben Webster.
A year later, Bill was playing on an album with Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. Working as a sideman with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Ike Quebec, Slam Stewart, he then led his own band with Terry Gibbs.
In 1947, DeArango returned to Cleveland and performed locally for two decades, recorded an album with pianist John Williams in 1954. By the 1960s had opened up a guitar store, taught guitar lessons, and late in the decade, he managed the rock band Henry Tree. Performing regularly in the Seventies at Cleveland’s Smiling Dog Saloon working with Ernie Krivda and Skip Hadden, mixing hard rock and free jazz.
His next recording was on the album Another Time/Another Place by Barry Altschul, then 298 Bridge Street by Kenny Werner, and Names by Jamey Haddad. In 1993, he released his second solo album, Anything Went, with Joe Lovano.
He entered a nursing home in 1999 and suffered dementia until his death seven years later, although he continued performing locally until late 2001. Guitarist William DeArango passed away on December 26, 2005 in his hometown.
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