Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wilbur Ware was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 8, 1923. He taught himself to play banjo and bass. In the 1940s, he worked with Stuff Smith, Sonny Stitt and Roy Eldridge. In the ‘50s, Ware played with Eddie Vinson, Art Blakey, Johnny Griffin and Buddy DeFranco.
Ware played simply, strongly, and melodically, with a big, hard-bop percussive sound. His best known for his hard bop percussive style and his most important Wilbur Ware records are three dates with the Thelonious Monk Quartet in 1957-58. The best Monk sides are the three perfect quartet tracks with John Coltrane and Shadow Wilson, followed by the uneven all-star “Monk’s Music” date, where one can hear Ware’s great harmonic insight on “Well You Needn’t”. These dates along with the Sonny Rollins Village Vanguard sets with Elvin Jones are examples of his finest recorded work.
Ware and fellow bassist Israel Crosby were leading examples of the more laid-back “Chicago Sound” approach to the bass during the 1950’s. By 1969, Ware had played with Clifford Jordan, Elvin Jones and Sonny Rollins. He later moved to Philadelphia, where the double-bassist died from emphysema on September 9,1979. He was 56 years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Theodore Walter “Sonny” Rollins was born on September 7, 1930 in New York City to parents from the U.S. Virgin Islands. The young Theodore started out at eleven years old on the piano, receiving his first alto saxophone at thirteen and by sixteen switched to the tenor. By high school he was playing in a band with other future jazz greats like Jackie McLean and Kenny Drew.
1949 saw Rollins recording with Babs Gonzales, J. J. Johnson and Bud Powell and through 1954 performed with Miles Davis, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. During this early period in the fifties he was arrested for armed robbery, arrested for violating his parole using heroin and sentenced the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, KY where he kicked his habit, although he was afraid sobriety would impair his musicianship. Little did he know at the time he would soar to greater height.
His early influences Louis Jordan, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young which did so much to inspire the fleet improvisation of be-bop in the 1950s. Rollins drew the two threads together as a fluid post-bop improviser with a sound as strong and resonant as any since Hawkins himself.
Sonny’s widely acclaimed sixth album “Saxophone Colossus” was recorded on June 22, 1956 at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in New Jersey, with Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins and Max Roach. This seminal work led to “Tenor Madness” with Garland, Chambers, Jones and Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins volume One & Two.
By 1959, Rollins was frustrated with what he perceived as his own musical limitations and took the first – and most famous – of his musical sabbaticals. To spare a neighboring expectant mother the sound of his practice routine, Rollins ventured to the Williamsburg Bridge to practice. Upon his return to the jazz scene in 1962 he named his “comeback” album “The Bridge” at the start of a contract with RCA Records, recorded with a quartet featuring guitarist Jim Hall, drummer Ben Riley and bassist Bob Cranshaw. This became one of Rollins’ best-selling records.
Over a very lengthy career spanning more than six decades, the Grammy winning saxophonist, Sonny Rollins, has recorded some 50 albums as a leader and two dozen albums as a sideman. He continues to record, perform and tour today.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clifford Laconia Jordan was born on September 2, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois and began his musical studies on the piano at an early age. While still in his hometown he took up the saxophone and had the opportunity to play with Max Roach, Sonny Stitt and a few rhythm and blues groups into the 50s. By 1957 at the age of 26, he made his move to New York City where he recorded three albums for Blue Note.
Over the course of his career Clifford recorded with Horace Silver, J. J. Johnson, Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, Max Roach and Paul Chambers. In 1964 he joined the Charles Mingus Sextet along with Eric Dolphy for the European tour. For a while he lived in Belgium, performed in Paris and toured Africa with Randy Weston.
Jordan’s later years saw him leading his own groups, performing with Cedar Walton’s Eastern Rebellion and even led his own big band. He recorded eighteen sessions as a leader and another 28 as a sideman. Saxophonist Clifford Jordan passed away on March 27, 1993 in Manhattan.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenny Dorham was born McKinley Howard Dorham on August 30, 1924 in Fairfield, Texas. One of the most active trumpeters of the bebop era, he played in the big bands of Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Mercer Ellington and Charlie Parker’s quintet. A charter member of the original Jazz Messengers, throughout his career he recorded as a sideman with Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Cedar Walton, Andrew Hill, Milt Jackson and Max Roach among others.
In 1956 Kenny led his own groups, including the Jazz Prophets that featured the young pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Sam Jones and tenorist J. R. Monterose. With guest guitarist Kenny Burrell, they recorded “Round About Midnight” at the Café Bohemia.
Dorham’s original quintet consisted of pianist Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor, and in 1963 he added 26-year-old tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson to his group. This friendship between Dorham and Henderson led to a number of other albums, such as Henderson’s “Page One”, “Our Thing”, “In ‘n’ Out” and “Una Mas” featuring a youthful Tony Williams.
Frequently lauded by critics and other musicians for his talent, he never received the kind of attention from the jazz establishment that many of his peers did. From 1953 to 1964 he recorded eighteen albums as a leader and held sideman duties on another forty-seven recordings. During his final years Kenny Dorham suffered from kidney disease, from which he succumbed on December 5, 1972, at age 48.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenneth Sidney Drew was born on August 28, 1928 in New York City. He first recorded with Howard McGhee in 1949, and over the next two years recorded with Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Charlie Parker, and Dinah Washington. He then led many recording sessions throughout the 1950s, and appeared on John Coltrane’s “Blue Train”.
Along with several other American jazz musicians who went to Europe, in 1961 Kenny moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. While he sacrificed much of the interest of the American jazz audience, he gained a wide following across Europe. He became a well-known figure on the Copenhagen jazz scene, recording many sessions with the Danish bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson.
Drew along with Dexter Gordon appeared on screen in Ole Ege’s theatrically released hardcore pornographic film Pornografi – en musical in 1971), for which they composed and performed the score. He recorded for Blue Note, Xanadu, Steeplechase, Riverside, Verve, Soul and Storyville record labels leaving a catalogue of forty albums as a leader and another 34 as a sideman performing with the likes of Toots Thielmans, Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, Chet Baker, Grant Green, Dizzy Gillespie and Dexter Gordon among others.
His touch has been described as “precise” and his playing a combination of bebop-influenced melodic improvisation and block chords, including “refreshingly subtle harmonizations”. Pianist Kenny Drew He passed away on August 4, 1993 in Copenhagen, leaving his son Kenny Jr. to carry on the family’s jazz piano legacy.
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