Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Chisholm was born on March 29, 1915 in Glasgow, Scotland and began playing trombone in his youth. His musical career started in the Glasgow Playhouse orchestra and by the late 1930s he moved to London, where he played in dance bands led by Bert Ambrose and Teddy Joyce. He later recorded with jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Fats Waller and Benny Carter when they visited the U.K.
In 1940, during World War II George signed on with the Royal Air Force becoming a member of the RAF Dance Orchestra, known popularly as The Squadronaires. He followed this with freelance work and a five-year stint with the BBC Show Band and as a core member of Wally Stott’s orchestra on BBC Radio’s The Goon Show, for which he made several acting appearances.
In the 1960s, Chisholm was part of The Black and White Minstrel Show, went on to join the house band for two children’s programs Play School and Play Away, and had roles in the films The Mouse on the Moon, The Knack and Superman III.
Despite undergoing heart surgery, during the 1980s George continued to play with his band The Gentlemen of Jazz, with Keith Smith’s Hefty Jazz among others, and playing live with touring artists. He was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1984 but in the mid-1990s, trombonist George Chisholm retired from public life due to ill health and passed away on December 6, 1997, aged 82.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herbert “Herb” Hall was born on March 28, 1907 in Reserve, Louisiana. He began on banjo and guitar with the Niles Jazz Band, then settled on reeds playing clarinet. In 1926 he played with Kid Augustin Victor in Baton Rouge, then moved to New Orleans the following year. Hall played briefly with trumpeter Sidney Desvigne’s outfit, and then teamed up with bandleader Don Albert played for many years from 1929-40. Following this stint he moved to San Antonio with him and remaining there until 1945.
After this Herb moved to Philadelphia playing with Herman Autrey; a few years later he was in New York, working with Doc Cheatham and toured Europe with Sammy Price in the mid-Fifties. He was a regular at the New York clubs of Jimmy Ryan and Eddie Condon in the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1968-69 he was on the road again touring with Wild Bill Davison’s Jazz Giants, and then a stint with an offshoot band of The Jazz Giants, called “Buzzy’s Jazz Family”.
Hall worked with Don Ewell, and appeared in Bob Greene’s Jelly Roll Morton revue show in the Seventies. Herb Hall, the highly skilled stylist, clarinetist, alto and baritone saxophonist who produced an impressive body of work, passed away on March 5, 1996.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sarah Lois Vaughan was born on March 27, 1924 in Newark, New Jersey and sang in church and learned to play piano as a child. Around age 18 she won the Apollo’s Amateur Night contest and in the spring of 1943 was called to open for Ella Fitzgerald. This engagement led to signing on with the Earl Hines band as his pianist, although she had some singing duties. An incubator for bebop Sarah played alongside Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bennie Green and Billy Eckstine.
By 1944 Eckstine left the Hines band to form his own and took Gillespie, Parker and Sarah with him giving her an opportunity to stretch her vocal prowess and her first recording session. The year spent with Eckstine proved rewarding as she honed her craft with Miles Davis, Lucky Thompson, Kenny Dorham, Art Blakey, Gene Ammons and Dexter Gordon among others.
Vaughan began her solo career in 1945 freelancing the 52nd Street clubs and record Lover Man on the Guild label. This would lead to recording sessions for Crown and Gotham labels, performing at Café Society and a subsequent Musicraft contract. Soon the hits If You Could See Me Now, Don’t Blame Me, I’ve Got A Crush On You, Everything I Have Is Yours and Body & Soul were released. She then signed with Columbia Records and her stardom was ensured.
Over an illustrious career Sarah Vaughan recorded over six dozen albums and live dates, has two recordings inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, was elected to the New Jersey Hall of Fame, has the lyrics to Send In The Clowns on the edge of the Newark Light Rail platforms, recognized as a NEA Jazz Master, received the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, recorded her final complete album Brazilian Romance in 1987 and briefly scatted on her final and only studio session with Ella Fitzgerald on Quincy Jones’ Back On The Block in 1989, a fitting end to a career that started with Ella.
Sarah Vaughan, nicknamed Sailor, Sassy and The Divine One and passed away due to complications from lung cancer on April 3, 1990. She was 66 years of age.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rodrigo Villanueva was born in Mexico City, Mexico on March 26, 1967 and began playing drums at age of 15, studying privately and taking classical percussion and jazz studies at Escuela Superior de Musica, Ollin Yolitztly and Escuela Nacional de Musica. In 1987, he joined the jazz group Atri 5 recording Ice Cream Concerto and Flavors of the Stars, touring Mexico and playing in several international new music festivals.
Over the course of his career Rodrigo has performed in several theater bands, television shows and studio sessions; and in the jazz/classical genre with Carlos Prieto, Roberto Limón, Marisa Canales, Ana Maria Tradatti and Takagoshi Yoshioka to name a few. He has been a member of the Contemporary Jazz Trio, Brass Explosion, Fénix and Jazztlán; and has co-led the group Espiral.
Villanueva has toured the U.S., Mexico, South America, Europe and Asia with several jazz and pop projects, has won the National Final Nescafe-Yamaha Pop Music Award Band Explosion with the group Corazón Latino, and has composed and arranged in the jazz and pop idioms including big band. He has played with his alma mater’s lab bands at the University of North Texas, performed with Charles McPherson, Eddie Gomez, Clark Terry, Wycliffe Gordon, Stefan Karlsson, Jimmy Owens and Fareed Haque amongst his list of many.
As an educator drummer and percussionist Villanueva has taught drum-set and percussion courses and master classes at different institutions in Mexico, the U.S., Perú, Korea, & Japan. He is currently an Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University, coaches the NIU Jazz Lab Band and continues to play with several groups.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Algeria Junius “June” Clark was born on March 24, 1900 in Long Branch, New Jersey and played piano as a child. He went on to learn bugle and trumpet, playing in local brass bands. Taking a job as a porter in New Orleans, he played in a musical revue called S. H. Dudley‘s Black Sensations, alongside James P. Johnson.
Clark and Johnson parted from the show to play on their own, landing in Toledo, Ohio and playing with Jimmy Harrison in the late 1910s. By 1920 Clark relocated to Philadelphia performing with Josephine Stevens and Willie “The Lion” Smith. He would go on to work in the traveling show Holiday in Dixie, but after a poor run it folded and Clark temporarily took up work in an automobile factory.
Rejoining Harrison soon after as a member of the Fess Williams Band, by 1924 June was in New York City playing with his own band. In the 30s he played with Ferman Tapp, Jimmy Reynolds, George Baquet, Charlie Skeete and Vance Dixon. However, failing health led him to quit music and he became Louis Armstrong’s tour manager.
Suffering from an extended bout of tuberculosis in 1939 Clark was bedridden for several years. After his recovery he worked as a musical advisor and assisted Earl Hines. Giving up music altogether, in the Forties he turned to boxing and became Sugar Ray Robinson’s manager. On February 23, 1963 trumpeter, cornetist, advisor and manager June Clark passed away in New York City.
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