Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louiz Banks was born Dambar Bahadur Budaprithi to Nepali parents on February 11, 1941 in Calcutta, West Bengal, British India and grew up in his hometown of Darjeeling. His early music education was at the hands of his father, a trumpeter, and his neighbour Mrs. Myers. He did his schooling at St. Roberts School, Darjeeling and around age thirteen he became interested in western music and he started playing the guitar and the trumpet. His father gave him piano lessons and played in his band. He went to college at St. Joseph’s College in Darjeeling, where he continued to study piano.
After college Banks moved to Kathmandu, Nepal with his father’s band and decided to become a full-time musician, it was there he discovered jazz music. In the late 1960s he had a three year residency at the Soaltee Hotel in Kathmandu. Moving back to Calcutta in 1971 he met singer Pam Craine and saxophonist Braz Gonsalves and formed The Louis Banks Brotherhood. They played hotel rooms and night clubs and he got work composing advertisement jingles and stage musicals.
In 1977 Louiz was in Mumbai with the R.D. Burman troupe and got introduced to world music. Popularizing live jazz he cemented his place and reputation in the city. Two years later along with Goan saxophonist Braz Gonsalves he formed the Indo-Jazz Ensemble, composing music on Indian classical scales and Jazz rhythms, incorporating Indian instruments like ghatam and thavil. In 1980, he was a member of the jazz quartet which was part of the orchestra to perform with Ravi Shankar in his noted suite Jazzmine at the ‘Jazz Yatra’ Festival.
He would go on to form several groups with vocalists, tabla and sitar. In addition he has composed music for several short films. He has performed at various concerts and with well-known jazz artists such as Radha Thomas and Joe Alvares. He worked on a progressive fusion jazz album titled Labyrinth with his son’s band Nexus.
He collaborated as co-producer, arranger and pianist and keyboards on the album Miles From India, a tribute to the founder of modern jazz Miles Davis was nominated for the 2008 Grammy Awards in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category. In the same category, John McLaughlin’s fusion album Floating Point was also nominated, Banks was the featured keyboardist on the album.
Keyboardist, singer, film composer, record producer Louiz Banks, who has often been acknowledged as the Godfather of Indian Jazz, continues to perform, compose and produce.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Don M’Orton was born on February 10, 1942. Having landed the gig as the resident reedman at the famous Boston, Massachusetts Lincs Jazz Club , in Europe during the 70s and 80’s he played with many British jazz musicians like Digby Fairweather and Roy Williams among others. He also played with many visiting Americans as well, including Thomas Jefferson, Wingy Manone, Alton Purnell, Al CAsey and Benny Waters, the latter with whom he played several tours.
By the mid 1990’s he was off again first to London and then Europe, the Middle East, the USA and the Caribbean. He had a trio in London with bassist Paul Godfrey and Ray Dempseywho was replaced by Cedric West on guitar. New York City saw him meet up with Al Casey again and played alongside him and tenor saxophonist George Kelly.
He went on to play with Michael Boothman and Kysufusion in Trinidad, before returning to the East Midlands. Since returning to the UK, Don has spent much of his time composing new tunes which vary from ballads to jazz tunes, including Caribbean and Latin American rhythms, and arranging material for his bands.
Tenor saxophonist Don M’Orton is still active as a player, performing regularly with the Red Hot Chillies, Dave Gladdish’s Irregulars, and the Big Wheel Quartet, in addition to his own swing trio.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeffry Castleman was born January 27, 1946 in Los Angeles, California. Active from the late 1960s to 1980s and was known for his work with Duke Ellington between 1967 to 1969. He also worked with Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Johnny Hodges and toured with Don Ho.
In the late 1980s he relocated to Brooklyn Park Minnesota to run the family liquor store business. For a short time he was an art framer before taking aposition as a piano salesman at Schmitt Music in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Leaving all forms of employment, bassist Jeff Castleman is now retired at 79.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Raymond Michael Pizzi was born January 19, 1943 in Everett, Massachusetts. His first instrument was clarinet and he attended the Boston Conservatory and Berklee College of Music in the 1960s.
Pizzi taught in Randolph, Massachusetts public schools from 1964 to 1969 before relocating to California. In the 1970s he worked with Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Frank Zappa, Shelly Manne, Willie Bobo, Moacir Santos, Mark Levine, and Dizzy Gillespie.
The Eighties saw him accompanying Nancy Wilson and was a sideman for Milcho Leviev and Bob Florence. He worked with the American Jazz Orchestra into the early-1990s. Ray recorded as a leader, including in a quartet called Windrider.
As an educator he joined the faculty at the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami in 1997.
Saxophonist, bassoonist, and flautist Ray Pizzi, nicknamed Pizza Man, died on September 2, 2021.
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DailyDose Of Jazz…
Leonard Ware was born in Richmond, Virginia on December 28, 1909. He went to college at the Tuskegee Institute and learned to play the oboe.
By 1938 Ware was playing electric guitar on recordings by Sidney Bechet. He then started working with Jimmy Shirley, who was one of the first groups to have two electric guitarists.
In December 1938, he played at Carnegie Hall with the Kansas City Six alongside Lester Young and Buck Clayton. 1939 saw him recording Umbrella Man with Benny Goodman. He performed in a trio during the 1940s and recorded as a leader in 1947. Leonard also recorded with Don Byas, Albinia Jones, Buddy Johnson, and Big Joe Turner.
Ware was the co-composer of Hold Tight, which he recorded with Bechet and I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem with Jerry Gray and Buddy Feyne, which was recorded by Glenn Miller and The Delta Rhythm Boys in 1941.
Dropping out of music a few years later, guitarist Leonard Ware, who was one of the first American jazz guitarists to play electric guitar, died at the age of 64 on March 30, 1974.
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