Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Buddy DeFranco was born Boniface Ferdinand Leonard DeFranco in Camden, New Jersey on February 17, 1923. By the age 14 he had won an amateur swing contest sponsored by Tommy Dorsey. Just four short years later he was working with the big bands of Gene Krupa in 1941 and Charlie Barnet in 1943. Those stints were followed with him playing off and on with Tommy Dorsey over the next few years.
Outside of a short-lived association with the Count Basie Septet in 1950, Buddy mainly lead his own bands from then on, playing and recording with Tal Farlow, Art Blakey, Kenny Drew and Sonny Clark, Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson as his sidemen, among others too numerous to name. He also played in some of Norman Granz’s Verve jam sessions and during the late 60’s DeFranco became the bandleader of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, an association that lasted until 1974. He has found more artistic success co-leading a quintet with Terry Gibbs off and on since the early 80’s and has recorded numerous albums.
Buddy DeFranco is considered one of the great clarinetists of all time and, until the rise of Eddie Daniels, he was indisputably the top clarinetist to emerge since 1940. It was DeFranco’s misfortune to be the best on an instrument that after the swing era dropped drastically in popularity and, unlike Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, he has never been a household name for the general public and while most jazz clarinet players were unable to adapt to fading popularity, Buddy Defranco was one of the few bebop musicians who successfully continued to play clarinet exclusively until he passed away on December 24, 2014 in Panama City, Florida at age 91.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
On Your Toes opened at the Imperial Theater on April 11, 1936. The show ran three hundred and fifteen performances and the music and lyrics were once again composed by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The production starred Ray Bolger, Tamara Geva and Doris Carson.
the Story: Junior Dolan, son of an old vaudevillian, becomes a music professor. He takes on the task of helping a struggling Russian ballet company. When complications arise, Junior is forced to take the place of the lead dancer and perform opposite Vera Barnova. Gangsters try to shoot him during the ballet but they are apprehended in time for a happy ending that included his proposal of marriage to sweet Frankie Frayne. From this musical came two songs that have endured as jazz classics – Glad To Be Unhappy and There’s A Small Hotel.
Broadway History: Broadway and 39th Street became the site where Aronson built The Casino with the procurement of financing from some of the wealthiest finance wizards of the day – the Goulds, Roosevelts, Vanderbilts and Morgans. When it opened I n 1882, The Casino was considered the finest example of Moorish architecture outside of Spain.
While Aronson was building his theatre, Charles Frohman had begun his separate career as the manager of theatrical professionals and in 1893 opened his own theatre. The Empire was one block up from The Casino. In November of that year Abbey’s Theatre opened next door to The Casino and the uptown migration of the theatre district continued. The Casino led the way for a number of entrepreneurs to build in the vicinity of Longacre Square, a long open promenade where Broadway crossed 7th Avenue. Following Aronson’s lead, the likes of Charles Frohman, Henry Abbey, Oscar Hammerstein and the Shuberts were among the investors and creators of the new theatre district.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pete Christlieb was born on February 16, 1945 in Los Angeles, California to bassoonist Don Christlieb. He began his musical career playing the violin at seven, adding the tenor sax by thirteen. After high school he played with diverse L.A. bands in the early 60’s including those led by Chet Baker, Woody Herman and Sy Zenter. He joined Louis Bellson in 1967 and stayed into the eighties.
He recorded his first leader session for the Jazz City label in 1971 and by the early 80’s he started his own label, Bosco Records that would issue small group albums as well as records by Bellson and Bob Florence.
Christlieb has long been in demand as a studio player and the saxophonist has played with innumerable artists including Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Quincy Jones and Sarah Vaughan while also knocking out legendary solos on Steely Dan’s Deacon Blues, Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable and the extended solo on the movie theme FM. He held a longtime seat in Doc Severinsen’s band on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Pete Christlieb, a bebop, hard bop and West coast tenor saxophonist currently plays with his group the Tall and Small Band, the Bill Holman Orchestra and his own quartet.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kirkland “Kirk” Lightsey was born on February 15, 1937 in Detroit, Michigan and started his piano instruction at the age of five, adding clarinet through high school. After his Army service he worked accompanying singers around Detroit and in California, gaining some attention when he recorded with Sonny Stitt in 1965 and on five Prestige dates with Chet Baker. He would work with Yusef Lateef, Betty Carter, Bobby Hutcherson, Kenny Burrell, Pharaoh Sanders and many others.
From 1979 to 1983 he toured with Dexter Gordon and was a member of the Leaders. Through out the 80’s he led sessions including duets with Harold Danko, performed with Jim Raney, Clifford Jordan, Woody Shaw, David Murray and Harold Land.
Rooted in the hard-bop genre, Kirk has developed his own style and sound that is marked by a certain openness and playfulness. An accomplished flautist, he occasionally doubles in live performances.
In 2004 he released a duo album with Rufus Reid titled Nights At Bradley’s and recorded a quintet project Lightsey To Gladden in 2008, dedicated to the late great drummer, Eddie Gladden. Over the course of his career he has amassed some three-dozen albums as a leader and sideman and pianist Kirk Lightsey continues to create music and perform worldwide.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Irving Gordon was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 14, 1915 and as a child, studied violin. After attending public schools in New York City, he went to work in the Catskill Mountains at some of the resort hotels in the area. While working the resorts, he took to writing parody lyrics to some of the popular songs of the day. He has been credited with writing “Who’s On First” made famous by Abbott and Costello, according to his son William.
In the 1930s, he took a job with the music-publishing firm headed by talent agent Irving Mills, at first writing only lyrics but subsequently writing music as well. Together they wrote two songs for Duke Ellington, Please Forgive Me and Prelude To A Kiss and co-wrote Blue Prelude with Ellington.
After writing Mister and Mississippi, a Patti Page hit, Irving decided he enjoyed puns on state names, and some years later wrote Delaware, a Perry Como hit. He also went on to write for Bing Crosby, Eddy Arnold and Billie Holiday. But he is perhaps best known for his song, “Unforgettable” recorded by Nat King Cole in 1951 and then three Grammys in 1992 by his daughter Natalie Cole, in which Gordon himself received a Grammy. Nat’s version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.
In the 1940’s he moved to Los Angeles where he spent the rest of his life continually writing and composing and is noted for his contribution in music and lyrics of the Americana genre. Songwriter Irving Gordon passed away in his home of cancer on December 1, 1996.
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