Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jerry Rusch was born Jerome A. Rusch on May 8, 1943 in St. Paul, Minnesota and studied at the University of Minnesota from 1962 to 1964. Afterward he played trumpet in an Army Reserve band before moving to Los Angeles, California in 1966.
During his time in Los Angeles Rusch played with the Gerald Wilson Big Band beginning in 1967, then backed Ray Charles from 1972 to ‘73, followed by Clifford Jordan, Joe Henderson, Willie Bobo, Louie Bellson, Teddy Edwards, Frank Foster, and Thad Jones & Mel Lewis.
He played with Joe Haider’s orchestra in Europe from 1982 to 1984. As a leader he recorded five albums, Rush Hour on Inner City Records, Native L.A., Bright Moments and Back Tracks for Jeru and Serenata on Jazzschool Records. As a sideman Jerry recorded extensively; among his credits are work with Charles Kynard, Benny Powell, Stan Kenton, Moacir Santos, Henry Franklin, and Eddie Cleanhead Vinson.
Not limiting himself to jazz he also backed Gladys Knight, the Rolling Stones, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, and The Temptations. Though uncredited, he was one of the cornet players in the final parade scene in the 1962 film, The Music Man along with member of the University of Southern California’s marching band, the Spirit of Troy, and many junior high school students from Southern California.
Trumpeter, cornetist and composer Jerry Rusch, who was also credited as Jerry Rush, passed away from liver cancer on May 5, 2003 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Friesen was born on May 6, 1942 in Tacoma, Washington, the younger brother to actress Dyan Cannon. An autodidact on bass, he picked it up while serving in the U.S. Army in Germany.
He played with John Handy and Marian McPartland and following this, with Joe Henderson and in 1975 he toured through Europe with Billy Harper. His first album as a session leader, Cool Pool on the Muse label was recorded in ‘75. The following year Friesen began collaborating with guitarist John Stowell that produced many dates where they would work together.
He performed with Ted Curson at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1977 and then worked with Ricky Ford, Duke Jordan, Mal Waldron, and Paul Horn. David’s 1989 album Other Times, Other Places reached No. 11 on the U.S. Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart. He would go on to perform or record with has Chick Corea, Michael Brecker, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Garrett, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Double bass and electric upright bassist David Friesen has recorded forty-three albums as a leader and continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Larry Ochs was born May 3, 1949 in New York City and studied trumpet briefly but concentrated on tenor and soprano saxophones. He has worked as a record producer and founded his own label, Metalanguage Records in 1978, in addition to operating the Twelve Stars studio in California.
A co-founder the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Larry worked in Glenn Spearman’s Double Trio. A frequent recipient of commissions, he composed the music for the play Goya’s L.A. in 1994 and for the film Letters Not About Love, which was named best documentary at SXSW in 1998.
He has played in a trio called Room, and the What We Live ensemble. He formed the group Kihnoua in 2007 with vocalist Dohee Lee and Scott Amendola on drums and electronics, releasing Unauthorized Caprices in 2010.
Avant-garde saxophonist Larry Ochs has released twelve albums as a leader, another twenty-three with Rova and a half dozen with Glenn Spearman, Fred Firth and Maybe Monday, dave Rempis and Darren Johnston. He has performed with Nels Cline, Gerald Cleaver, Donald Robinson, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Connie Crothers was born on May 2, 1941 in Palo Alto, California and began studying classical piano at age 9. She went on to major in music and composition at the University of California at Berkeley. While matriculating her teachers put less emphasis on emotional expression and more on procedure, structure and compositional rigor, which did not find a likeable place in her mind.
She subsequently became a student of pianist Lennie Tristano. After Tristano’s death in November 1978, she founded the Lennie Jazz Foundation and recorded a memorial concert album in his honor.
Her debut recording Perception was released in 1974 on the Steeplechase label. She went on to record another twenty albums as a leader over the course of her career and four as a sidewoman. In 1982 she recorded the album Swish with drummer Max Roach for New Artists Records, a label she and Roach founded. She also recorded in groups with, among others, Bud Tristano, Linda Satin, Richard Tabnik and Cameron Brown.
Pianist Connie Crothers, who mainly played in the avant-garde and free jazz genres, passed away of lung cancer in Manhattan, New York City on August 13, 2016.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
April Barrows was born on April 28, 1954 in Milford, Connecticut and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area where she moved with her family when she was five. The first music she heard came from listening to her mother’s collection of boogie-woogie 78s by such pianists as Meade “Lux” Lewis, Albert Ammons and Pinetop Smith. Singing along with the records and imitating the sounds she learned the formats. She became a record collector herself as a teenager and was always interested in older styles.
She played violin for a few years and in high school sang and played rhythm guitar. Barrows performed duets with a country singer, frequently performing roots music, and learned both steel guitar and electric bass. For a time she had a regular day job as a chemist but her main dream was to become a professional musician.
In the late ’70s she spontaneously quit her job and headed for Nashville where her talents were quickly recognized. She played electric bass in a variety of bands for the next six years working with the Judds’ first band, the Memphis Horns, Vassar Clements, and even Woody Herman. In 1985 she switched her focus and became a songwriter and while she had success writing country, bluegrass, and blues songs, her true love was writing and performing her own new swing tunes.
In addition to her jazz inspirations of Ella Fitzgerald, the Boswell Sisters, Mildred Bailey, Louis Armstrong, Ivie Anderson, Bing Crosby, Ruth Etting, Annette Hanshaw and Cliff Edwards, she listened to Bob Dylan, country music and rock of the ’60s. While continuing in the commercial field, she has recorded as a leader, her debut release of original swing tunes on My Dream Is You followed by her sophomore project All You Need Is the Girl. Vocalist, guitarist and composer April Barrows is currently working on a third project with clarinetist Evan Christopher and cornetist Duke Heitger, and continues to compose and perform.
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