Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Don Patterson was born July 22, 1936 in Columbus, Ohio. He started studying piano as a child, heavily influenced by Erroll Garner but by 1956 switched to organ after hearing Jimmy Smith play. Making his debut on organ in 1959 he played with various groups into the early Sixties that saw him start performing regularly with Sonny Stitt, where he made a name for himself. This led to numerous recording sessions as a leader with Prestige and later Muse Records beginning in 1964 with sidemen guitarist Pat Martino and drummer Billy James.
During the Sixties, Don recorded as a sideman with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, and Eric Kloss but his most commercially successful album was his 1964 “Holiday Soul” reaching #85 on the Billboard 200 three years later. However, with his troubles with drug addiction hobbling his career in the 70s, while residing in Gary, Indiana he would occasionally record for Muse Records.
By the 1980s organist Don Patterson had moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and made a small comeback, but his health continued to deteriorate over the course of the decade, forcing him to frequent dialysis until he passed away on February 10, 1988. He left a catalogue of twenty-one albums as a leader and thirteen as a sideman.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Helen Merrill was born Jelena Ana Milcetic on July 21, 1930 in New York City to Croatian immigrants. The internationally renowned jazz vocalist began singing in jazz clubs in the Bronx at the age of fourteen. By the time she was sixteen, she had taken up music full time and in 1952 made her recording debut when asked to sing “A Cigarette For Company” with the Earl Hines Band that was released on their Xanadu album.
As a result of this exposure she received two subsequent singles recorded for Roost Records and was then signed by Mercury for their new Emarcy label. In 1954, she recorded her first and one of her most acclaimed LP simply titled “Helen Merrill” featuring legendary jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown and bassist/cellist Oscar Pettiford, among others. The album was produced and arranged by Quincy Jones, who was then just twenty-one years old. The success of the album got her signed to an additional four-album contract with Mercury.
Her follow-up 1956 album Dream of You arranged by Gil Evans was the precursor to the musical foundations for his Miles Davis years. By the 60s she was in Europe touring and enjoying greater commercial success than in the States. Developing a following in Japan that remains strong to this day, she not only recorded in Japan, Merrill became involved in producing albums for Trio Records and hosting a show on a Tokyo radio station.
Helen returned to the U.S. in 1972 and has continued recording and regular touring since then. Her later career has seen her experiment in different music genres, recording a bossa nova album, a Christmas album a Rodgers and Hammerstein album, as well as resurrecting “Dream of You” in 1987 with fresh arrangements titled “Collaboration” and co-producing “Billy Eckstine Sings With Benny Carter” and singing on duet on two ballads. By 1995 she recorded “Brownie: Homage to Clifford Brown in tribute to the late trumpeter.
Helen Merrill’s career has spanned six decades with no fade in her popularity and has recorded and performed with some of the most notable figures in the American jazz scene such as Chet Baker, San Getz and Romano Mussolini, among many, many others.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Brigadoon opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre on March, 13, 1947 and had a run of 581 performances. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Leowe composed the music and lyrics for the stars David Brooks, Marion Bell, George Keane and Pamela Britton. From this musical arose to compositions to jazz standard fame – Almost Like Being In Love and The Heather On The Hill.
The Story: Two American hunters in Scotland lose their way and stumble upon the village of Brigadoon that seems to belong to another time. As they enter, a kilted swain is rejoicing his impending marriage. Tommy falls in love with Fiona, Jeff has a fling with Meg. They discover the village is bewitched coming back to life only once every hundred years. Jeff and Tommy flee but Tommy’s love for Fiona brings him back and the village appears just long enough to embrace him.
Broadway History: It was during the 20th century that the Tony Awards were established, in 1947. These awards recognized theater achievement in Broadway theaters. Other Broadway and theater awards include the Drama Desk Awards, New York Drama Critics Circle Award, Theatre World Awards and the Obie Awards. The Drama Desk Awards are the only award given to Broadway and off-Broadway productions, all competing against each other.
The Obie awards cover off Broadway and off-off Broadway productions. The Theatre World awards are given to actors for outstanding debut performances. The New York Drama Critics’ Circle award is the second oldest theater award in the U.S. with the main award for Best Play.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Peter Ind was born July 20, 1928 in Middlesex, England who didn’t begin playing double-bass professionally until the late Forties as part of the house band on the Queen Mary. Relocating to New York in 1951 he played with Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, Buddy Rich, Booker Ervin, Mal Waldron and Slim Gaillard.
Branching into production Peter became a pioneer in stereo recording and the overdubbing of jazz in the Fifties. He produced sessions in his loft for Zoot Sims, Gerry Mulligan and Booker Little and founded his own “Wave” label in 1961, releasing as a leader “Looking Out” featuring Joe Puma and Dick Scott.
By 1963 Ind had moved to Big Sur, California where he remained until 1966. During this period he concentrated on performing unaccompanied, and recorded several albums of solo material. In 1965 he played with Konitz and Warne Marsh and continued to play with Marsh and Konitz into the 1970s after his return to England in 1967. Private recordings under the Wave imprint began to be issued.
In 1984 he opened a nightclub in London called the Bass Clef and after several successful years, the club had to close for tax reasons. Peter Ind continues to record and issue CDs, perform internationally and has written two books – “Jazz Visions” that explores the legacy of Lennie Tristano and “The Environment and Cosmic Metabolism” centering on energy concerns.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carmell Jones was born in Kansas City, Kansas on July 19, 1936 and was reared by parents how were both teachers. He became interested in music and jazz, by his own admission, at the age of two. Piano lessons began at age five, gave way to the “that’s for sissy’s attitude” and trumpet started at seven.
He spent two years in the army followed by two years at the University of Kansas as a music education and trumpet major. Leaving the Midwest for the Pacific coast, he became a California studio musician in 1960 recording with such artists as Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, and Nelson Riddle. During this chapter in his success story, he was being compared to Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro. Carmell developed a close association with Bud Shank as a member of his quintet. He recorded with many other notables and most importantly he recorded his first album under his own name and contract with Pacific Jazz – “The Remarkable Carmell Jones”.
In ‘64 moving to New York he joined the Horace Silver Quintet recording three albums with Silver including “Song For My Father”. Down Beat Magazine awarded Jones the designation of “New Star Trumpeter” and signing with Prestige, he recorded what he considers his most successful personal album, “Jay Hawk Talk”, with pianist Barry Harris, tenor Jimmy Heath, drummer Roger Humphreys and bassist Teddy Smith. This album received the critics 5 Star Best Album Award.
The next year Carmell left the U.S. for Germany and spent the next fifteen years working with Milo Pavlovic, Herb Geller, Leo Wright and Eugene Cicero, the SFB Big Band and Radio Free Berlin recording 8 hours a day, composing and arranging for radio, TV and film. Upon his return to the States he devoted much of his time building new musicians from the ground up teaching music in his hometown elementary schools.
Carmell Jones, trumpeter, composer, arranger, music publisher, educator and recording artist with over sixty albums to his credit passed away in Kansas City, Kansas on November 7, 1996.