Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pepsi Auer was born Josef Auer on June 14, 1928 in Munich, Germany. He first played accordion in a youth orchestra, then he taught himself to play the vibraphone in 1936. A move to America in 1945 saw him performing in jazz clubs and by 1949 he moved to the piano. He would go on to work in the combo of Freddy Christmann in 1954, ultimately taking leadership two years later.
Pepsi worked with Freddie Brocksieper in 1958, the German All Stars in ’58, worked and toured from 1958 to 1960 with Albert Mangelsdorff jazz ensemble and then with Kurt Edelhagen. By the Sixties his style of approach mimicked Bud Powel and Horace Silver and in 1962 he worked in the Bayerischen Rundfunks.
Auer accompanied Stan Getz, Eric Dolphy and Benny Bailey on their tours of Germany, as well as with Miriam Klein. He would team up once again with Freddie Brocksieper from 1955-1964 and participate in recording sessions as well as with the German All Stars. From the mid-1960s he worked as a studio musician and increasingly composed music for television such as “A Summer With Nicole”.
In 1967 he took part in the Montreux Jazz Festival as a member of the Jazz Orchestra of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, where he and Don Manza were co-leaders. Pianist, vibraphonist and composer Pepsi Auer passed away on March 29, 2013.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
I’m Getting Sentimental Over You lyrics were written by Ned Washington and the music by George Bassman and surfaced to become a jazz classic out of the 1947 fictionalized biographical film The Fabulous Dorseys.
The Story: The rise and rise of the Fabulous Dorsey brothers is charted from their humble beginnings of boyhood in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania in this whimsical step down memory lane, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey play themselves in this vehicle for their excellent music. From being raised by their father who insists on them learning music, to the split that just saw their careers rise even further, to their personal reunion.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nanette Natal was born on June 10, 1945 in Brooklyn, New York. She started her professional career as a classical singer in 1960 and during this period she was a member of the Helen Hayes Young People’s Theater Guild. In the early ’60s, she performed numerous concerts in New York with that group. She then went on to work the Bitter End Coffee House Circuit, performing her own material, which developed into blues and rock, singing and playing guitar and performing at universities and concert halls throughout the country.
By the ’70s, she recorded for Vanguard and Evolution Records, worked with Mahalia Jackson, Odetta, Bonnie Raitt and Rick Nelson along with TV appearances, most notably with Barbara Walters on The Today Show. She was also active on the club circuit playing such venues as the Gaslight and the Au Go-Go.
Unhappy with the constrictions of the record companies, it was in the mid-Seventies that she dissolved her recording contracts and set herself upon a path to develop her musical expression and in 1977 she turned to jazz as that vehicle. Nanette’s defining moment in her mind to pursue a jazz career occurred during a demo recording session for Columbia Records. She was asked to record a pop record and she sang Duke “Sophisticated Lady”. Dramatically changing the phrasing she was subsequently told by the engineer that she was not a pop singer, but a jazz singer.
From 1977 to the mid-’80s, Natal became a strong influence on the downtown loft scene. It was at this time that she started to teach privately, setting up her production company and label, Benyo Music Productions, and releasing five albums from 1980 to 1995.
Nanette Natal, one of the more creative jazz singers continues to perform and teach in New York and work on such interesting and daring projects as a one-woman opera. She also writes a monthly column “Creative Fire-Singing as a Spiritual Practice” which expresses her views on the art and techniques of jazz vocalizing.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Royce Campbell was born on June 7, 1952 in Seymour, Indiana the son of a career navy man. Growing up in several U.S. cities and abroad including Asia, Europe and the West Indies he was exposed to different music genres as a child. These added to his musical style and approach in jazz composition and playing. Though mainly associated with mainstream jazz, his first love was rock and roll that connected him at age nine to the guitar and Chuck Berry, followed by Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton..
By the time Royce finished high school in the early 1970s, he was certain he wanted to pursue a professional career in music. His uncle, Carroll DeCamp, an arranger/pianist who arranged for Stan Kenton and Les Elgart invited the young guitarist to live with him and study in Indiana, providing most of his musical education in theory and composition. By age 21, he had begun touring with R&B artist Marvin Gaye and developing his talents for stage performance. In 1975 he was hired by a local music contractor to do three concerts with award-winning film composer Henry Mancini in Indianapolis. Soon after Royce became the touring guitarist with Mancini’s orchestra, holding that positing until Mancini’s death in 1994.
Though appearing on recordings as a sideman, and a couple as leader, during the early years of his career, Campbell started recording and touring more on his own during the 1990s, focusing at first on mainstream or straight-ahead jazz. Although he cites Wes Montgomery as his main influence, the horn of Dexter Gordon, and Chet Baker also had a great impact.
In 1993, he produced Project G-5: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery which also featured guitarists Tal Farlow, Jimmy Raney, Herb Ellis and Cal Collins. His 1994 album 6×6 featured guitarists Pat Martino, John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Dave Stryker and Bucky Pizzarelli. A follow-up Project G-5: A Tribute to Joe Pass, in 1999, Royce brought together the talents of Charlie Byrd, Gene Bertoncini, Mundell Lowe and John Pisano.
During his career guitarist Royce Campbell has released more than 30 CDs as leader or co-leader among various sideman projects. Fifteen of these CDs have made it onto the US national jazz radio charts. His soloing is documented among other jazz guitarists of the era, in Mel Bay’s Anthology of Jazz Guitar Solos: Featuring Solos by the World’s Finest Jazz Guitarists! He has been inducted into the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation Hall of Fame and continues to record, perform and tour.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Harry Warren composed the music and Mack Gordon, the lyrics for the now jazz standard, I Had the Craziest Dream, for the 1942 film Springtime In The Rockies. The film starred Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, John Payne, Cesar Romero, Harry James and His Music Makers and the vocal group Six Hits and a Miss.
The Story: Broadway partners Vicky Lane and Dan Christy have a tiff over Christy’s womanizing. Jealous Vicky takes up with her old flame and former dance partner, Victor Price, and Dan’s career takes a nosedive. In hopes of rekindling their romance and getting Vicky back on the boards with him, Dan follows her to a ritzy resort in the Canadian Rockies, where she and Victor are about to open their new act. But things get complicated when Dan wakes after a bender to find that he’s hired an outlandish Latin secretary, Rosita Murphy, which makes Vicky think he’s just up to his old tricks again.
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