Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dave Schildkraut was born on January 7, 1925 in New York, New York and started playing professionally in 1941, first with Louis Prima. He followed this five year residency with Buddy Rich and Anita O’Day through the end of the decade and into the Fifties.
He moved on to hone his craft further by working with Stan Kenton, Pete Rugolo, Oscar Pettiford, Miles Davis, George Handy, Tony Aless, Ralph Burns, Tito Puente, Johnny Richards, and Kenton again in 1959. During the 1960s, Dave freelanced around New York City, appearing regularly with Eddie Bert at the West End Cafe. Later in his life he went into semi-retirement.
His playing was fluid and brilliant in pure bebop style but Schildkraut only recorded one album as a leader, in 1979. However, the album wasn’t released until 2000 by Endgame Records as Last Date. As a sideman he recorded sixteen albums.
Alto saxophonist Dave Schildkraut, whose style mimicked Charlie Parker but later showed influences of John Coltrane, Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz, transitioned on January 1, 1998 in Darien, Connecticut.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jerome Darr was born on December 21, 1910 in Baltimore, Maryland. His first major professional affiliation was in a jug band, the Washboard Serenaders. The guitarist was a member of this group from 1933 through 1936, a tenure that included a well-received European tour.
He had an incredibly versatile and prolific career. He showed up on sessions from blues to bebop and even strummed a few arpeggios behind Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers.
Though Jerome was not hiding in a closet during the ’40s, the guitarist simply focused on work as a studio musician during an era when the efforts of such players went largely uncredited. He was a player in the classic jazz context of Buddy Johnson’s band in the early ’50s, or was working with the much more modernistic Charlie Parker during roughly the same period.
He played on some 20 recording sessions between 1935 and 1973, though to his credit or noncredit, his playing included many other styles besides jazz. In his final years, Darr was mostly swinging in the busy band of trumpeter Jonah Jones, in a sense coming full circle with the type of playing he had started out with.
Guitarist Jerome Darr passed away on October 29, 1986 in Brooklyn, New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Reynold David Philipsek was born December 8, 1952 in Richmond, Minnesota and at the age nine began playing guitar and by 14 joined the American Federation of Musicians labor union. At sixteen, he wrote and recorded the single Oval Portrait with the band Cure of Ares. At 18, he was exposed, through a radio broadcast, to gypsy jazz through Django Reinhardt.
In 1975, he took a lesson and two workshops from jazz guitarist Joe Pass, studied jazz guitar and The Complete Johnny Smith Approach to Guitar with Mike Elliott.. Post Cure of Ares, he played in bands in the midwest and in 1989, Philipsek became primarily a solo act recording albums in pop, rock, jazz, and gypsy jazz on his label, Rephi Records.
He began to concentrate on gypsy jazz with All the Things You Are and Tales from the North Woods, that includes elements of gypsy jazz, bebop, Latin folk, modal jazz, and Slavic folk music informed by his burgeoning interest in his Czech and Polish heritage. Along with appearing at gypsy jazz festivals, jazz clubs, and concert venues, he composed the score for the children’s short film. St. Cloud Sleep, wrote a book of poetry Journey to the Middle Ages, and released Three Piece Suite/Munsinger Gardens on DVD.
He went on to produce Live at The Times recorded with the Twin Cities Hot Club and the documentary A Life Well Played in 2016. Guitarist, singer, songwriter, and poet Reynold Philipsek continues to explore his music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eugene Sufana Allen was born on December 5, 1928 in East Chicago, Indiana. He began playing clarinet and piano as a child, and was playing with Louis Prima at age 15 in 1944. He stayed in Prima’s band until 1947, then worked with Claude Thornhill for two years in 1949, and from 1951 to 1953 he played with Tex Beneke.
In 1953 he began playing with the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, playing with them intermittently until 1961, and also worked with Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Hal McKusick in the 1950s. Toward the end of the decade, and into the early 1960s, Gene worked with Gerry Mulligan, Manny Albam, Woody Herman, Thelonious Monk, and Bob Brookmeyer.
His later associations include work with Urbie Green, Mundell Lowe, Rod Levitt, and Rusty Dedrick. In the calendar year of 1963, Allen successfully played in and recorded with the big bands of Benny Goodman, Thelonious Monk, and Woody Herman.
Baritone saxophonist and bass clarinetist Gene Allen passed away on February 14, 2008.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clifton “Skeeter” Best was born on November 20, 1914 in Kinston, North Carolina. Playing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1935 to 1940, he recorded with Slim Marshall and Erskine Hawkins. By 1940, he was a member of Earl Hines’s orchestra, playing with him until he joined the U.S. Navy in 1942.
After the war, he played with Bill Johnson, toured East Asia with Oscar Pettiford, and formed his own trio in the 1950s. He did a critically acclaimed session with Ray Charles and Milt Jackson in 1957 called Soul Brothers.
In 1958, he recorded with Mercer Ellington and taught in New York City. He also recorded with Harry Belafonte, Etta Jones, Nellie Lutcher, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson, Paul Quinichette, Jimmy Rushing, Sonny Stitt, Charles Thompson, and Lucky Thompson.
Guitarist Skeeter Best passed away on May 27, 1985 in New York City.
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