Three Wishes

Calvin Newborn acknowledged Nica’s question of three wishes by speaking with these three:

1. 1. “Well, the first would be a new instrument ~ a new guitar.”
   2. “I want to have an estate, some property. You know.”
   3. “A beautiful woman.”

*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…

Ronald “Ronnie” Zito was born on February 17, 1939) in Utica, New York, into a musical family including his pianist brother Torrie Zito. He began playing drums at the age of 10 and at age 14 took a year and a half of formal lessons.

He has played with Woody Herman, J.R. Monterose, Frank Rosolino, Peggy Lee, Cher, Roberta Flack and Eartha Kitt. Zito was Bobby Darin’s personal drummer for four years.

Ronnie has recorded with David Pomeranz, Barry Manilow, Irene Cara, Frankie Valli, Roberta Flack, Jake Holmes, Cher, and Don McLean.

Drummer Ronnie Zito continues to perform and record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Csaba Deseo was born February 15, 1939 in Budapest, Hungary. His mother was a violin teacher and he began playing the instrument at the age of 10. He continued his musical education at Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest, and got his diploma in 1961. He taught in music schools until 1967 when he became a member of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, where he played until 1999. During the time he played innumerable concerts in Hungary and in many countries of the world from Japan to the United States. He performed with artists like Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, Ádám Fischer, and Yehudi Menuhin, to name a few.

His career took off in 1963 when he appeared with his first group at the legendary Dalia Club in his hometown. From 1964 they gave regular concerts and were frequently featured on Hungarian Radio and TV. He would play at festivals and jamborees in the Sixties, then recorded his debut album under his own name Four String Tschaba in 1975 for MPS Records in West Germany. In that session Deseo played both violin and viola, and he would go on to record 4 LPs and 6 CDs with Hungarian and foreign musicians.

1975 saw Csaba meeting Zagreb vibraphonist Bosko Petrovic, with whom he played regularly until 2011. He also appears as a guest star in Germany, where he usually solos with the group of Walter Kurowski.

Since 1980 Deseo has fronted bands with different line-ups. His more important partners were pianist Laszlo Gardony, vibraphonist Richard Kruza, guitarist Andor Kovacs, bassist Bela Lattmann and drummer Imre Koszegi. Since 1990 he’s been working mainly in a trio and is a regular guest artist at the concerts of the Benko Dixieland Band and the Budapest Ragtime Band.

During the past few decades he has also played with international stars and is a regular contributor to the specialist Hungarian music magazine, Gramofon ~ Classical and Jazz. Violinist Csaba Deseo continues to perform and record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

B.J. Papa was born on February 9, 1936 in Mobile, Alabama and as a child in the 1940s he was listening to all kinds of jazz and blues on the radio. Drafted into the Army in 1954 he became a medic and was stationed in San Francisco, California at Letterman Hospital in the Presidio. However, he ended up spending much of his service time playing on Army ball teams. By the time he turned 19 he found himself intrigued with the jazz bands booked into the Army noncommissioned officers clubs.

After his discharge from the service in 1956 Papa stayed in town and began saxophone lessons. He also made his first forays into the heart of the bustling Fillmore Street jazz community and would show up to listen and learn at the famous after-hours jams at Jimbo’s Bop City.

Over the course of his fifty year career Papa became a North Beach institution mentoring dozens of young cats making their transition from student to professional musician. He played with the biggest names in jazz to come through the city as well as passionate laymen sans pedigree.

Settling in at Jazz At Pearl’s, one of the few remaining jazz clubs that still possessed an air of authenticity before closing its doors, for thirteen years he shared the stage with an eclectic, enthusiastic audience nightly.

Pianist B.J. Papa, who always fed on and drew from the energy of the audience but has no recordings on line, transitioned on August 31, 2008.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bobby Durham was born on February 3, 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and learned to play drums while a child. He played with The Orioles at age 16, and was in a military band between 1956 and 1959. After his discharge, he played with King James and Stan Hunter.

1960 saw Durham moving to New York City, where he played with Lloyd Price, Wild Bill Davis, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Slide Hampton, Grant Green, Sweets Edison, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Rowles, and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, in which he played for five months. While working with Basie, he met Al Grey, and was a member of several of Grey’s small ensembles.

He accompanied Ella Fitzgerald for more than a decade, and worked with Oscar Peterson in a trio setting. Bobby played in trios with organists such as Charles Earland and Shirley Scott, and there was a resurgence in interest in his work during the acid jazz upswing in the 1990s. Many of his projects, both as sideman and as leader, came about because of his association with producer Norman Granz, who used him in performances with Fitzgerald, Basie, Edison, Flanagan, and Joe Pass.

He led his own combos, is noted for scat singing along with his drum solos. He recorded with Monty Alexander, Shawn Monteiro, Red Holloway, Milt Jackson, Clifford Jordan, and Jay McShann. He also performed often with pop and soul musicians such as Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Ray Charles, and Marvin Gaye.

Drummer Bobby Durham, who recorded five albums as a leader and twenty~three as a sideman, transitioned from lung cancer in Genoa, Italy at 71 on July 6, 2008.

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