Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Adrian Francis Rollini was born June 28, 1903 in New York City, New York of French and Swiss extraction. Growing up in Larchmont, New York, he showed musical ability early on and began to take piano lessons at the age of two. Considered a child prodigy, he played a fifteen-minute recital at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel at the age of four. By age 14 he was leading his group composed of neighborhood boys, in which he doubled on piano and xylophone.

Leaving high school in his third year he cut piano rolls for the Aeolian company on their Mel-O-Dee label and the Republic brand in Philadelphia, Pennsyolvania. At 16 he joined Arthur Hand’s California Ramblers and being equally skilled at piano, drums, xylophone, and bass saxophone, gained him Hand’s respect. Hand transferred the band to Rollini when he retired from the music field.

During the 1920s not only was he a member of the California Ramblers with Red Nichols, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, he also held membership in The Little Ramblers, The Goofus Five, and The Golden Gate Orchestra. During this time, he managed to lay down hundreds of sessions with Annette Hanshaw, Cliff Edwards, Joe Venuti, Miff Mole, Red Nichols, Bix Beiderbecke, Roger Wolfe Kahn, and Frank Trumbauer.

The 1930s saw him forming the Adrian Rollini Orchestra which recorded on Perfect, Vocalion, Melotone, Banner, and Romeo labels, where he played both bass saxophone and vibraphone. During the early swing era, starting in 1935, he managed Adrian’s Tap Room, owned the Whitby Grill, and opened White Way Musical Products, a store for the sale and repair of musical instruments.

Gradually shifting from the bass saxophone to the vibraphone after popularity of the hot jazz era of the 1920s waned. He went on to play hotels, arranging and writing songs behind the scenes. After an exhaustive career, he made his last recording with his trio in the early 1950s. He relocated to Florida, opened the Eden Roc Hotel in 1955, ran the Driftwood Inn at Tavernier Key and his Driftwood offered deep-sea fishing charters.

Bass saxophonist, pianist, and vibraphonist Adrian Rollini, died under unsolved circumstances on May 15, 1956 at the age of 52 in Homestead, Florida.

More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,saxophone,vibraphone

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Michel Benebig was born in Nouméa, New Calédonia, South-Pacific on June 27, 1964. He started playing bass guitar, accordion and keyboards in dancing bands at age 11. He studied classical piano from 16 to 26 yers old, at the Noumea Music-School, then in France at C.N.R de Besancon from 1990 to 1992.

Michel started playing the Hammond B3 organ in 1992. As a self-taught musician he taught himself how to play foot-pedal bass and jazz organ techniques. Meeting Jimmy McGriff in Atlanta, Georgia in 1995, Jimmy Smith in Oakland, California and Rhoda Scott in Nouméa the following year.

Michel has performed with guitarist Bruce Forman, drummer Lewis Nash, organist Tony Monaco, guitarist Randy Johnston and many more.

Organist, composer and bandleader Michel Benebig who is the founder of the Association des Musiciens de Jazz & Blues pour les Echanges et la Création Artistique, Artistic Director of YAARI, continues to perform and tour.

More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,organ

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Leon Calvert was born on June 26, 1927 in Westcliffe-on-Sea, England and learned to play the trumpet in his childhood. His family moved to Manchester, England while he was very young. His first professional job was with Jack Nieman’s Band at the Plaza in Manchester and by 1945 he was on the London circuit. From late 1947 he performed on the ocean liner Mauretania with Paul Lombard.

Joining Oscar Rabin’s band in 1948, that year he was one of the ten musician co-founders of Club Eleven in Great Windmill Street, and later Carnaby Street. While at the club he played with the house band led by John Dankworth. During the late Forties and into the Fifties Calvert worked with the Ambrose band (1949), the Steve Race Bop Band (1949), Tito Burns (1950–1951) and then for four years with Carroll Gibbons. In the mid-1950s he had stints with Ken Moule, Buddy Featherstonhaugh, the London Jazz Orchestra and Denny Boyce. In the late 1950s he worked with Tony Crombie and Vic Lewis.

The 1960s saw Calvert operating a jazz label at Lansdowne Studios with drummer Barry Morgan, Monty Babson and Jerry Allen. In 1967 the group founded Morgan Sound Studio which ventured outside the jazz idiom and became the location for rock recordings by Joan Armatrading, Black Sabbath, The Cure, Donovan, Jethro Tull, The Kinks, Paul McCartney, Cat Stevens, Rod Stewart, and numerous more.

In 1961 he took over from Dick Hawdon as lead trumpeter for the John Dankworth Orchestra. He can be heard on many Ken Moule and Dankworth recordings of this period, his style influenced by the early work of Miles Davis. He was featured on Johnny Scott’s London Swings in 1966.

The 1970s saw Calvert recording with Richard Rodney Bennett on his Jazz Calendar Suite and on Tony Kinsey’s Thames Suite. He worked mostly as a freelance musician for radio, television and film. As a session trumpeter he recorded with John Baryy, and The Beatles. In the 1980s, Calvert sometimes played as a duo with pianist Jack Honeybourne, and he continued playing at small jazz venues into the 1990s, with the Sounds of Seventeen, Jazz Spell and George Thorby’s Band.

Bebop jazz trumpeter Leon Calvert, who was one of the co-founders of Club Eleven, died on May 1, 2018 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England at the age of 90.

More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Rachel Gould was born Rachel Field on June 25, 1953 in Camden, New Jersey. She studied cello and classical singing at Boston University. Upon moving to Germany in 1975 she established herself as a jazz musician, formed her own quartet and toured Europe. In 1979 she appeared in London, England with Chet Baker and recorded the much acclaimed album All Blues.

In the early 1980s, she performed at numerous European festivals, and worked with groups led by Ack van Rooyen, Lou Blackburn, Ferdinand Povel, Bobby Burgess, Michel Herr, Tom Nicholas, Dieter Reith and Erwin Lehn. In 1983 Gould sang for quite a while in the United States and, in New York City, with Woody Herman, Sal Nistico and Jake Hanna.

Upon her return to Germany, she presented the band Breath & Bones at the Leverkusen Jazz Festival. She continued her work in Germany from 1984 onwards, consisting mainly of teaching as a lecturer at the conservatories in Maastricht, Cologne, Mainz and Hamburg. Then in 1987 she travelled to the Swiss Jazz School.

She went on to work with Joe Haider and Benny Bailey. Gould played with Riccardo Del Fra on the 1989 album A Sip of Your Touch, and with his band on a live album at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival.

Since 1991, vocalist Rachel Gould has continued to perform in addition to working as a lecturer in jazz singing at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

More Posts: bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,vocal

On The Bookshelf

JAZZ COVERS | JOAQUIN PAULO 

This striking collection of jazz record covers shows the designs that defined a sound. Containing covers from the 1940s to the early 1990s, each reproduction is accompanied with essential background information. Spanning photographic and illustrative works, these album artworks match music and design in a remarkable history of jazz.

Part design history, part trip down musical memory lane, this anthology of jazz album artwork is above all a treasure trove of creative and cultural inspiration. Spanning half a century, it assembles the most daring and dynamic jazz cover designs that helped make and shape not only a musical genre but also a particular way of experiencing life.

From the 1940s through to the decline of LP production in the early 1990s, each chosen cover design is distinct in the way it complements the energy of the album’s music with its own visual rhythms of frame, line, text, and form. To satisfy even the most demanding of music geeks, each record cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing performer and album name, art director, photographer, illustrator, year, label, and more.

Joaquim Paulo is a consultant for major labels and directs a number of radio stations in Portugal. He started collecting vinyl at the age of 15, and flew to London, Paris, New York, and São Paulo to enrich his collection of over 25,000 LPs. He lives and works in Lisbon and dedicates his free time to recovering old and rare recordings.

The Editor

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

Jazz Covers

Taschen: Hardcover, 11.5 x 11.5 in., 9.21 lb, 552 pages

ISBN 978-3-8365-8525-5

Edition: Multilingual (English, French, German)

More Posts: book,classic,collectible,history,jazz,library