Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen was born May 27, 1946 in Osted, near Roskilde on the Danish island of Zealand. As a child he played piano and started learning the double bass during his teenage years. By age 14 while still studying he began his professional jazz career in Denmark with his first band, Jazzkvintet 60. At 17, he had already turned down an offer to join the Count Basie Orchestra, being too young to legally live and work in the U.S.
The 1960s saw Pedersen playing with several visiting or residing musicians in Denmark such as Bud Powell, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Roland Kirk, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Bill Evans, and Ben Webster to name a few. He became the bassist of choice whenever a big-name musician was touring Copenhagen.
Pedersen worked in duo and trio arrangements with pianist Kenny Drew, recording over 50 albums together, worked with Oscar Peterson, Stephane Grappelli and Joe Pass and recorded extensively as a leader. His best-known songs are “My Little Anna”, “Jaywalkin” and “The Puzzle”. He was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize, the “Best Bass Player Of The Year” by the Downbeat Critics’ Poll, co-led a duo with Mulgrew Miller that toured Europe, Japan, Australia, and Korea and later enlarged into a trio with drummer, Alvin Queen. Bassist Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen, known as The Great Dane With The Never Ending Name, died of heart failure on April 19, 2005 at the age of 58 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rubén González was born on May 26, 1919 in Santa Clara, Cuba. He learned to play piano at the music high school of Cienfuegos. He studied medicine for a time, abandoned it due to financial difficulties and began playing with groups in Las Villas. In 1940, he moved to Havana, where he played in the charangas of Paulina Álvarez and Paulín, with Arsenio Rodríguez, Kubavana and Senén Suárez and in the big bands Siboney and Riverside.
By 1943, he released his first recording with Arsenio Rodriguez and during the 50s he served as a member of the Orquesta America, Orquesta de Enrique Jorrin and CMQ. Between 1957 and 1961, he worked in Venezuela but very soon he became known in Cuba and other parts of Latin America. In the early 1960s Rubén became the pianist for the Orquesta de Enrique Jorrín for 25 years, took over leadership after Jorrín’s death in 1987, but retired soon after.
It wasn’t until a meeting with Ry Cooder that González came out of retirement, recorded his first solo album in years and became a part of the Buena Vista Social Club with a host of veteran Cuban musician whose fame became worldwide.
Pianist Ruben González’s last public appearances were in Mexico and Cuba in 2002 and the next year the pianist passed away on December 8, 2003 at age 84.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pha Terell was born Elmer Terrell on May 25, 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri. He began singing in local nightclubs in the early 1930s as a singer, dancer, and emcee. Discovered by Andy Kirk, he was hired as the vocalist for his group the Twelve Clouds of Joy. Terrell sang with Kirk for eight years, from 1933 to 1941, and recorded with him extensively for Decca Records. One of the biggest hits was 1936’s “Until the Real Thing Comes Along”.
After 1941 Terrell moved to Indianapolis to play with Clarence Love’s territory band, then moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a soloist. Jazz singer Pha Terrell passed away of kidney failure on October 14, 1945 in Los Angeles at age 35.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herbie Fields was born May 24, 1919 in Asbury Park, New Jersey and attended Juilliard School of Music. He served two years in the Army during WWII until 1943. He began recording in 1944 with two sides for Bob Thiele’s Signature label and over the next year and a half he recorded for Savoy, and shared a date with “Rubberlegs” Williams that featured teenaged Miles Davis’ recording debut.
Fields replaced Earl Bostic as alto saxophonist in Lionel Hampton’s band and was fluent in a variety of reed instruments, from clarinet to baritone saxophone. In 1945, he won Esquire Magazine’s New Star Award on the Alto Sax. In 1946, RCA Victor signed Fields as leader of his own big band.
Herbie would lead the big band with sidemen Neal Hefti, Bill Evans, Eddie Bert, Manny Albam, Marty Napoleon and Serge Chaloff among others and Dardanella was their biggest hit. He formed a septet in 1949 based in Chicago that backed numerous stage shows and in 1950 accompanied Billie Holiday 3-month East Coast tour.
Fields gravitated toward an R& B conception in the Fifties without success and recorded sporadically. He moved to Miami, Florida, opened a restaurant and on September 17, 1958 alto saxophonist Herbie Fields died of an overdose of sleeping pills at his home.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ken Peplowski was born May 23, 1959 in Cleveland, Ohio. He began playing clarinet and saxophone in Polish polka bands as a child and played his first professional gig while still in elementary school. With his trumpeter brother they played local radio and television shows, dances and weddings all through high school. By his teens Ken was experimenting with jazz, playing in the school bands, jamming with the local jazz musicians and teaching at the local music store.
After a year of college, he joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow. It was during this time that he met Sonny Stitt who became a great inspiration. In 1980 Peplowski moved to New York City and played from Dixieland to avant-garde jazz. He would work for Benny Goodman, recorded some 20 albums for Concord Records, toured around the world, recorded film soundtracks and most recently signed with Nagel-Heyer Records.
His collaborations include Mel Tormé, Leon Redbone, Charlie Byrd, Peggy Lee, Madonna, George Shearing, Hank Jones, Rosemary Clooney, Tom Harrell, James Moody, Cedar Walton, Houston Person, Steve Allen and Woody Allen among others. Jazz clarinetist and saxophonist Ken Peplowski continues to perform, tour, record, conduct student workshops, has been named the jazz advisor for the Oregon Festival of American Music and music director at the Jazz Party at the Shedd.
Clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Ken Peplowski passed away quietly in his cabin on February 2, 2026 while participating in the Jazz Cruise aboard the Celebrity Summit sailing in the Gulf of Mexico.