Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeffrey Ovid Clyne was born on January 29, 1937 in London, England and taught himself double bass from the age of 17. He played in the 3rd Hussars military band during his national service from 1955 to 1957, and on demobilisation found himself at the cutting edge of the British modern-jazz and bebop movement.
Clyne worked with Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott in their group the Jazz Couriers for a year from 1958, and was part of the group of musicians who opened Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in November 1959. He was a regular member of Hayes’ groups from 1961. He accompanied Blossom Dearie, Stan Tracey on his Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood album, Ian Carr, and Gordon Beck on Experiments With Pops, with John McLaughlin.
Jeff would go on to perform with Dudley Moore, Zoot Sims, Norma Winstone, John Burch and Marion Montgomery. He was a member of Nucleus, Isotope, Gilgamesh, Giles Farnaby’s Dream Band and Turning Point during the 1970s. He often worked with drummer Trevor Tomkins.
Bass guitar and double bassist Jeff Clyne died on November 16, 2009 from a heart attack at the age of 72.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richie Crabtree was born January 23, 1934 in Sidney, Montana. A student of legendary piano virtuoso Freddie Saatman, the pianist first popped up on the jazz scene in the company of the Montgomery Brothers. His short recording career seems to have taken place between the late ’50s and early ’60s, largely as a member of a quartet called the Mastersounds. This group, which duplicated the Modern Jazz Quartet’s popular instrumentation of piano, vibes, bass, and drums, but not its style, was an even mix of Montgomery siblings and others. Monk played the bass, with Buddy on the vibraphone, and Crabtree took rhythmic cues from drummer Benny Barth.
While Wes sat in at times, it was Buddy and Monk that were continually looking for a way of making the intricate inventions of bebop more appealing to easy listening and pop listeners. In 1957 the group was gigging in San Francisco and landed a contract with the World Pacific label. They recorded two albums before label honcho Dick Bock went to Indianapolis to check out Wes that they had been bragging about. The resulting recordings were also the debut on vinyl for a 19-year-old Freddie Hubbard.
A serious devotee of the founding fathers of bebop, Richie was not about to slouch on the harmonic contribution. However, little seems to have been written about him since 1961, a point where discographers place his last recording session. The Mastersounds group was at the height of its popularity in 1960, so naturally this was also the year the group decided to break up.
Pianist Richie Crabtree faded into obscurity and to date nothing has surfaced about his whereabouts or whether he is living or dead.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Theodore Smith was born on January 22, 1932 in Washington, D.C. During the Sixties he played with Betty Carter, and with Clifford Jordan with whom he recorded the album Bearcat, and Kenny Dorham in 1961-62, recording the album Matador.
From 1962 to 1963 Teddy played with Jackie McLean and Slide Hampton. Following this he played with Horace Silver, including performances at the 1964 Montreux, Antibes, and Paris jazz festivals. He was a member of the quintet that recorded four tracks on Silver’s album Song for My Father.
Smith’s performance on the title track of Song for My Father, beginning with the opening unison figure between his bass and Silver’s piano, has been one of the most widely heard pieces of jazz music in the world for nearly a half-century and an influence on such artists as Stevie Wonder and Steely Dan.
Following his Silver residency in which he also recorded Live, Teddy went on to play with Sonny Rollins from 1964 to ‘65 recording The Standard Sonny Rollins and played with Sonny Simmons in 1966.
Double-bassist Teddy Smith, never a leader, died on August 24, 1979 in his birth city.
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Daily Dose O fJazz…
Ronald Shannon Jackson was born on January 12, 1940 in Fort Worth, Texas and as a child he was immersed in music. His father monopolized the local jukebox business and established the only African American-owned record store in the metropolitan area. His mother played piano and organ at their local church. Beginning at age five until nine he took piano lessons and in the third grade he studied music with John Carter. He graduated from I.M. Terrell High School, where he played with the marching band and learned about symphonic percussion. By the age of 15, he was playing professionally. His first paid gig was with tenor saxophonist James Clay.
Attending Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri gave him access to St. Louis, Missouri and the musicians touring the Midwest. His roommate was pianist John Hicks and his bandmates also included Lester Bowie and Julius Hemphill. Transferring first to Texas Southern University, then to Prairie View A & M before landing at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut studying history and sociology. In 1966, through trumpeter Kenny Dorham he attended New York University on a full music scholarship.
Once in New York City he performed with many jazz musicians, including Charles Mingus, Betty Carter, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson, Kenny Dorham, McCoy Tyner, Stanley Turrentine, Charles Tyler and Albert Ayler. By 1975 he joined Ornette Coleman’s electric free funk band, Prime Time, where he learned composition and harmolodics. He would go on to play Paris, France, record four albums with Cecil Taylor, and formed his band, The Decoding Society, in 1979. In addition to leading Decoding Society lineups, guitarist James Blood Ulmer recruited Ron for another group.
Continuing to push the envelope over the next few years he formed several groups including Last Exit, SXL, Mooko, and Power Tools. Jackson joined trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quartet, then played with the Punk Funk All Stars, and toured Europe with The Last Poets. In 2011 he formed a power trio called Encryption.
Drummer Ron Jackson who recorded nineteen albums as a leader, six with Last Exit and as a sideman fifteen with Albert Ayler, James Blood Ulmer, Cecil Taylor, SXL, Music Revelation Ensemble, and Ornette Coleman, died of leukemia on October 19, 2013, aged 73.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frankie Randall was born Franklin Joseph Lisbona on January 11, 1938 in Passaic, New Jersey. In 1964, he kicked off his acting career starring in Wild on the Beach and appeared in The Day of the Wolves in 1971. He appeared numerous times on the Dean Martin TV show, and hosted the summer version of the show when Martin was not available.
He released dozens of RCA singles and albums from the 1960s onwards. After starting out in pop music, Randall, a piano player, began performing material from The Great American Songbook. His version of the song “I Can See for Miles” by The Who is included in Rhino Records’ album Golden Throats: The Great Celebrity Sing Off.
In 2001, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him. Frankie was inducted into the Las Vegas Casino Legends Hall of Fame the following year. He was presented the Amadeus Award by the Desert Symphony on January 11, 2013.
On December 28, 2014, pianist and vocalist Frankie Randall died of lung cancer in Indio, California at the age of 76.
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