
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Peter Charles Strange was born December 19, 1938 in Plaistow, Newham, London, England and played violin as a child before switching to trombone as a teenager. His first major gig was with Eric Silk and his Southern Jazz Band when he was just 18 years old.
In 1957, Silk’s clarinetist Teddy Layton split off and formed his own band, and Strange went with him. Called up for National Service in 1958 and became a bandsman in the Lancashire Fusiliers, whilst serving in Cyprus. Following this he played with Sonny Morris, Charlie Gall, and Ken Sims, before joining Bruce Turner from 1961 to 1964.
1964 saw Turner in a 10 year partial retirement for about 10 years, playing but when he returned Peter played with Turner permanently in 1974, and in 1978 co-founded the Midnite Follies Orchestra with Alan Elsdon.
In 1980, he founded the five-trombone ensemble, Five-A-Slide, which featured Roy Williams and Campbell Burnap. He joined Humphrey Lyttelton’s band in 1983, and remained with the ensemble until the leader died. With the other members of the Lyttelton band, Strange performed on the 2001 Radiohead album Amnesiac.
Trombonist, arranger and composer Pete Strange, who played with his group The Great British Jazz Band, died of cancer in Banstead, Surrey, England on August 14, 2004 at the age of 65.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trombone

Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Juhani Aaltonen was born December 12, 1935 in Kouvola, Finland. He began playing professionally at the end of the Fifties. He played in a sextet led by Heikki Rosendahl during that time, and then studied flute performance at the Sibelius Academy and in the U.S. at the Berklee College of Music.
Moving back to Finland, he settled in Helsinki and began working both as a session musician and with fusion groups. Late in the 1960s he formed a duo with Edward Vesala, played in the group Eero Koivistoinen and with Tasavallan Presidentti. He recorded with Thad Jones and Mel Lewis and with Heikki Sarmanto late in the decade and early 1970s. His debut album as a soloist, Etiquette, was released in 1974.
The following year Juhani became a member of the New Music Orchestra, and worked with the Nordic All Stars, Arild Andersen, and Peter Brötzmann before the end of the decade. The Eighties saw him working with the UFO Big Band, Jan Garbarek, Charlie Mariano, and others. He led a touring quartet from 1990 to 1992.
In 2001 he released a duo recording, Rise, and his trio album Mother Tongue won a Jazz-Emma in Finland. Saxophonist and flautist Juhani Aaltonen continues to perform as well as teach at the annual Nilsiä Music Camp.
More Posts: bandleader,flute,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone

Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Theodor Christian Frølich Bergh, better known as Totti Bergh was born December 5, 1935 in Oslo, Norway. He began playing clarinet, and started learning to play the saxophone in 1952. By the time he turned 21 in 1956, he became a professional musician, becoming a regular member of Kjell Karlsen Sextet for three years, in addition to collaborating sporadically with Rowland Greenberg and other musicians on the Norwegian jazz scene.
He joined the Norwegian America Ships house orchestra on the voyage to New York City. In 1960 Totti succeeded Harald Bergersen as tenor saxophonist in Karlsen’s new big band and in the summer of 1961 he met his future wife Laila Dalseth, who joined the band.
He would go on to play with the bands of Einar Schanke, Rowland Greenberg, Per Borthen and in Dalseth’s orchestra. During the Nineties he played tenor and soprano saxophone with Christiania Jazzband and with Christiania 12.
Saxophonist Totti Bergh, who released several albums as a leader and whose music is reminiscent of Lester Young and Dexter Gordon, died January 4, 2012 in his home city.

Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wilber Morris (November 27, 1937 in Los Angeles, California and followed in the footsteps of his older brother Butch into the music industry and jazz. He began playing frums as a child but switched to the double bass during his tour of duty in the Air Force from 1954 to 1962.
He played around San Francisco, California with Pharoah Sanders and Sonny Simmons but after his discharge he returned home and played with Arthur Blythe and Horace Tapscott. 1969 saw Wilber back in San Francisco for a short period but it wasn’t until he moved aross the country for New York City in 1978 that his career took off. His association with Billy Bang from 1979 to ‘83 rendered five albums and multiple touring dates. He then became a mainstay in David Murray’s octet well into the 1990s which produced seven albums.
He put together a trio of players under the name Wilber Force in 1981 and recorded his debut album as a leader, Collective Improvisations, and would go on to record six more as a leader or co-leader. His final recording came in 2019 titled Monks, which is a collective interpretation of Thelonious Monk compositions.
Morris founded the One World Ensemble in 1995, and participated in John Fischer’s one-off reunion of INTERface and performed well into the new millennium.
Wilber performed with Pharoah Sanders, Steve Habib, Sonny Simmons, Alan Silva, Joe McPhee, Horace Tapscott, Butch Morris, Arthur Blythe, Charles Gayle, William Parker, Charles Tyler, Dennis Charles, Roy Campbell, Avram Fefer, Alfred 23 Harth, Borah Bergman and Rashied Ali.
As a sideman recorded thirty-one albums with Marshall Allen, Billy Bang, Thomas Borgmann, Rob Brown, Bobby Few, Avram Fefer, Charles Gayle, Steve Habib, Frank Lowe, Makanda Ken McIntyre, David Murray, Kevin Norton. Positive Knowledge, Alan Silva and Steve Swell.
Double bass player and bandleader Wilber Morris died on August 8, 2002 in Livingston, New Jersey from a previos bout with cancer that returned.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music

Jazz Poems
THE SYNCOPATED CAKEWALK
My present life is a Sunday morning cartoonIn it, I see Miss Hand and her Five Daughters
rubbing myback and the backs of my legs
Nat King Cole provides the music and the words
It’s 1949, Finished with them, I take off
on a river boat, down the Mississippi, looking for work.
On deck the got the Original Dixieland Jazz Band
doing “Big Butter and Egg Man.”
A guru haas the cabin next to mine and everybody
who visits him whimpers something terrible!
Stood on deck after dinner watching the clouds
form faces and arms. The Shadow went
by giggling to himself.
An Illinois Central ticket fell from his pocket.
Snake Hips picked it up, ran.
Texas Shuffle, who sat in with the Band last night,
this morning, dropped his fiddlecases
in the ocean and did the Lindy all the way
to the dinning room
I got off at Freak Lips Harbor.
Boy from Springfield said he’d talk like Satch for me
for a dime. I gave him a Bird,
and an introductory note to the Duke of Ellington.
Found my way to the Ida B. Wells Youth Center.
Girl named Ella said I’d have to wait to see Mister B.
Everybody else was out to lunch.
In the waiting room got into a conversation
with a horse thief from Jump Back. Told him:
My past life is a Saturday morning cartoon.
In it, I’m jumping Rock Island freight cars, skipping
Peoria with Leadbelly; running from the man,
trying to prove my innocence. Accused of being
too complex to handle.
Meanwhile, Zoot, Sassy, Getz, Prez, Cootie, everybody
gives me a hand.
Finally, Mister B comes in. Asks about my future.
All I can say is, I can do the Cow Cow Boogie
on the ocean and hold my own in a chase chorus
among the best!Fine, says Mister B, you start seven in the morning!
CLARENCE MAJOR
from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
More Posts: book,classic,collectible,history,jazz,library,poet