Three Wishes

Pannonica asked what three wishes Ronnie Boykins who request and his answer was:

1. “Three more!”

*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…

Michael John David Westbrook was born March 21, 1936 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England and grew up in Torquay. After a spell in accountancy and his National Service he went to art school and studied painting and where he began his first bands in 1958, soon joined by such musicians as John Surman, Lou Gare and Keith Rowe.

Moving to London, England in 1962, Westbrook led numerous bands, large and small, and played regularly at the Old Place and the Little Theatre Club at Garrick Yard, St Martin’s Lane. Together with Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, Westbrook shared the role of house-band at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club.

Becoming a key figure in the development of British jazz, Mike produced several big-band records for the Deram label, with the newly formed Mike Westbrook Concert Band, which varied in size from 10 to 26 musicians. His music was given exposure on BBC Radio. The British Arts Council awarded him a bursary to develop ‘Metropolis’ for an enlarged Concert Band, and the jazz suite was further broadcast on BBC Radio Three.

The 1970s saw a wide range of different projects beyond his orchestra work including but not limited to carnival processions, jazz-rock, avant-rock. At 80 years old, Westbrook, as part of the celebrations, recorded his first solo piano album for 40 years, titled PARIS.

Pianist, composer, and writer of orchestrated jazz pieces Mike Westbrook, who was awarded the OBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), and recorded his latest album London Bridge Live in Zurich 1990 in 2022, continues to expand his musical horizons.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz

Keith John Smith was born on March 19, 1940 in Isleworth, Middlesex, England. Originally intent on pursuing studies in engineering, he began playing trumpet at the age of 15. Soon after he began playing in local amateur ensembles, including Norrie Cox’s band and the New Teao Brass Band, the latter including Chris Barber and Ken Colyer.

His first professional gig came in 1960 as a member of Mickey Ashman’s Ragtime Jazz Band. In 1962, he started the Climax Jazz Band and began recording. In 1964, Smith visited New Orleans for the first time, where he played with George Lewis. Intending to move to the U.S. permanently, he worked briefly in New Orleans, Louisiana before spending time in California and New York. In 1966, he organized an all-star band to tour Canada and Europe, which included Pops Foster, Jimmy Archey, and Alvin Alcorn.

Moving to Denmark in 1972 he remained there until 1975, playing with Papa Bue in his Viking Jazz Band. Afterwards he returned to England, where he founded a new band, Hefty Jazz. This group lasted over a decade, toured internationally and over the years featured George Chisholm, Mick Pyne, Peanuts Hucko, Nat Pierce, Johnny Mince, and Barrett Deems. Concurrently, he was named leader of the Louis Armstrong All-Stars in 1981, and in 1984 served as producer for Stardust Road, a televised film made as a tribute to Hoagy Carmichael. Late in his life he lived in Germany, still active as a performer.

Trumpeter Keith Smith, principally active on the trad jazz and Dixieland revival scenes, transitioned on January 4, 2008 in London, England from a heart attack at the age of 67.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ann Burton was born Johanna Rafalowicz on March 4, 1933 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. When she was 3 years old her mother married a diamond worker and in 1938 her surname was changed to her stepfather’s and she became Johanna de Paauw, which was her official name until 1971, when she again changed it back to Rafalowicz.

During World War II her family faced Jewish persecution under the German occupation and she went into hiding while her mother and stepfather survived the Nazi concentration camps. However, the family became disrupted when her stepparents were deprived of parental power. Johanna, who had Polish nationality, acquired Dutch nationality in 1957.

Johanna never had singing lessons, but she had listened to American singers like Doris Day, Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Later, Billie Holiday and Shirley Horn influenced her. She wanted to get into the music world and so in about 1955 she took the name Ann Burton inspired by the Welsh actor Richard Burton.

Ann Burton began her career as a singer with a quintet in Luxemburg. She sang with bandleader Johnny Millstonford and performed in clubs with the orchestra of Ted Powder for American soldiers in Germany.

In the summer of 1958 she sang in the quartet of pianist Pia Beck in Scheveningen and in 1960 they toured with saxophonist Piet Noordijk in Spain and Morocco. Returning home she continued singing and in 1965 she made an EP for Decca Records with the nl:Frans Elsen Trio. Later she joined Ramses Shaffy’s group Shaffy Chantant.

The late sixties saw Ann getting noticed by  John J. Vis, the director of the record company Artone, who produced her first album Blue Burton in 1967. She became popular and the album received an Edison Award in 1969. A few more records in 1969 and 1972 were released in collaboration with John Vis.

In 1973, she toured Japan, where she became the most popular jazz singer, second only to Ella Fitzgerald. She made numerous albums with Masahiko Sato and Ken McCarthy and others. In the late seventies she worked in New York, where she made several albums, some of which were with Grady Tate and Buster Williams with singer Helen Merrill producing the albums. For “New York State of Mind” Burton also received an Edison award.

In the eighties she founded her own record label, Burtone, that produced her albums. During the period 1986–1988 she taught at the Amsterdam Conservatory.

Vocalist Ann Burton, who recorded twenty-one albums, transitioned at the age of 56 due to throat cancer on November 29, 1989 in Amsterdam.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Gordon “Whitey” Mitchell was born on February 22, 1932 in Hackensack, New Jersey. He began on clarinet and tuba as a youngster before choosing bass as his primary instrument. He studied radio & television at Syracuse University and then plunged into the New York jazz scene, becoming a regular at the famed nightspots Birdland and Basin Street East.

He led his own groups at The Village Vanguard and The Embers and later toured with big band greats Benny Goodman and Pete Rugolo, played Carnegie Hall with Gene Krupa, appeared with Buddy Rich, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Lester Young on Jazz At The Philharmonic.

In the early 1950s he played with Elinor Sherry and Shep Fields before serving in the Army during the Korean War. From 1954 he worked freelance in New York City, playing with Gene Krupa, Mel Tormé, Jack Jones, J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding, Lester Young, Charlie Ventura, Herbie Mann, Betty Roche, Oscar Pettiford, Gene Quill, Joe Puma, Johnny Richards, Peter Appleyard, André Previn, Benny Goodman, and again with Rugolo.

He performed on hundreds of recording sessions, television and film scores but only released one album under his own leadership on ABC-Paramount in 1956, and one with his brother Red and Blue Mitchell in 1958 as The Mitchells: Red, Whitey & Blue, released on MetroJazz Records. Whitey recorded with Anita O’Day, Barbra Streisand, Anthony Newley, and played the bass solo introduction on Ben E. King’s hit record Stand By Me.

After 1965 he largely ceased playing jazz and moved to Hollywood, California on advice from Lenny Bruce and André Previn to pursue a career as a television writer. He worked on shows such as Get Smart, All In the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Odd Couple, Mork and Mindy, and several Bob Hope television specials. He wrote the feature film Private Resort starring Johnny Depp.

As an educator he taught screenwriting at UCLA and UC Riverside. In 1995 he had his own radio show, The Power Lunch and wrote a golf column for a local magazine. He recorded his CD Just In Time and played jazz in all the nightclub venues. He was the author of two books, Hackensack to Hollywood: My Two Show Business Careers and Star Walk: A Guide to the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.

Bassist and television writer/producer Whitey Mitchell, who often placed in the Metronome and Downbeat jazz polls, transitioned on January 16, 2009.

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