Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Barnes was born in Manchester, England on May 15, 1932. He started out his career as a flügelhorn player in the early 1950s, and adapted his playing skills to the clarinet, an instrument he favored. He played traditional jazz with Alan Elsdon, The Mike Daniels’ Delta Jazzmen and also The Zenith Six.
In May 1964, after a bad car crash Barnes was replaced by Al Gay, until his full rehabilitation as a member of Alex Welsh band. He continued and extended his career musically from 1967 with the Scottish dixieland jazz trumpet and cornet player Alex Welsh and his Jazz Band, which lasted ten years until 1977.
He began playing alto, baritone, soprano saxophone and the flute. During this period he rose to fame in the jazz arena appearing at the Newport Jazz Festival aged 37 in 1969. His skills on baritone saxophone earned him a huge jazz fan base, some suggesting he was the best they had seen in Europe. After leaving Welsh, Barnes worked as co-leader, with trombonist Roy Williams of the Midnite Follies Orchestra, which included many American jazz artists.
John worked with Janet Jackson, Leo Sayer, Humphrey Lyttelton, Gerry Mulligan, Spike Robinson, Bobby Wellins and Keith Nichols. He considered Coleman Hawkins and Johnny Hodges to be his two main saxophone influences throughout his career.
In 2011, while on holiday in Greece, Barnes suffered a stroke. As a result of his stroke, a benefit concert was held for him the following year at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, London.
Saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist John Barnes died on April 18, 2022 at the age of 89.
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Jazz Poems
FOR ERIC DOLPHY
on flute
spinning spinning spinning
love
thru / out
the universe
i
know
exactly
whut chew mean
man
you like
titter
my sister
who never expressed LOVE
in words (like the white folks always d
she would sit in the corner o
and cry i
everytime n
I g
got a whuppin
Etheridge Knight
from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cal Collins was born on May 5, 1933 in Medora, Indiana and first played the mandolin professionally as a bluegrass musician in the early 1950s. After his Army service he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio he switched to jazz guitar after hearing swing guitarists Charlie Christian, Irving Ashby and Oscar Moore. He played in Cincinnati for twenty years.
In 1976 Benny Goodman hired him at the age of 43 and had a three year stint with the orchestra. Cal then spent three years making albums for Concord Jazz. As a leader and sideman, he worked with Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Rosemary Clooney, Ross Tompkins, Woody Herman, John Bunch, and Marshal Royal.
Returning to Cincinnati in the early Eighties, Collins slowed down his career. He joined the Masters of the Steel String Guitar Tour in 1993 with Jerry Douglas and Doc Watson. Over the course of his career he recorded a dozen albums as a leader with his debut recording being Cal Collins In San Francisco in 1978 on the Concord label.
He recorded twenty-eight albums with John Bunch, Rosemary Clooney, Concord Jazz All Stars, Concord Super Band, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Eiji Kitamura, Marshal Royal, Warren Vache, Bob Barnard, Michael Moore, Jimmy Madison, Kenny Poole, Scott Hamilton and Buddy Tate, Hank Marr, and Ross Tompkins.
In 2001, guitarist Cal Collins, who recorded his last album in 1998, died of liver failure on August 27th in Dillsboro, Indiana.
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Jazz Poems
FILLING THE GAP When Bird died, I didn’t mind I had things to do— polish some shoes, practive a high school cha-cha-cha. I didn’t even know Clifford was dead: I must have been lobbing an oblong ball beside the gymnasium. I saw the Lady right before she died— dried, brittle as last year’s gardenia. I let her scratch an autograph. But not Pres. Too bugged to boo, I left as Basie’s brass booted him off the stand in a sick reunion— tottering , saxophone dragging himmlike a stage-hook. When I read Dr. Williams’ poem, “Stormy,” I wrote a letter of love and praise and didn’t mail it. After he died, it burned my desk like a delinquent prescription… I don’t like to mourn the dead: what didn’t, never will. And I sometimes feel foolish staying up late, trying to squeeze some life out of books and records, filling the gaps between words and notes. That is why I rush into our room to find you mumbling and moaning in your incoherent performance. That is why I rub and squeeze you and love to hear your live, alterable cry against my breast Lawson Fusao Inadafrom Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Beaver Harris was born William Godvin Harris on April 20, 1936 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Coming from an athletic family, he played baseball as a teenager for the Kansas City Monarchs, which was part of the Negro American League, and was scouted by the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants.
After his Army service, Beaver began playing drums. Moving in 1963 to New York City and was encouraged to pursue a musical career by Max Roach. The city did him quite well as he worked and/or toured with Marion Brown, Dexter Gordon, Albert Ayler, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Jordan, Howard Johnson, Sheila Jordan, Lee Konitz, Thelonious Monk, Roswell Rudd, Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Stitt, Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Doc Cheatham and Larry Coryell among other musicians.
Harris founded a world music band calling it the 360 Degree Music Experience. The band included Buster Williams, Hamiet Bluiett, Don Pullen, Jimmy Garrison, Ron Carter, Ricky Ford, and many others.
Drummer Beaver Harris, who worked extensively with Archie Shepp, died of prostate cancer in New York City at the age of 55 on December 22, 1991.
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