Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Herman Foster was born on April 26, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began his musical career before age ten playing the violin, clarinet, saxophone, and piano. A self-taught pianist, Foster created a distinguished earthy sound. When his family moved to New York City in 1947, Herman began to attend jam sessions and then played with Eric Dixon, Dick Carter and the big band of Herb Jones.

His success came when he met Lou Donaldson and the two played together for thirteen years from 1953 to 1966. During the 1950s he worked with King Curtis, Bill English and Seldon Powell, in the 1960s with Al Casey, in addition to playing with his own trio over the next decade. He returned to work in Donaldson’s quartet in the 1980s.

He released four records as a leader for Epic, Argo and Timeless Records and as a sideman recorded nineteen albums with Lou Donaldson, Gloria Lynne, Johnny Hartman, Hisayo Tominaga, George V. Johnson Jr., Joan Shaw, Al Casey and King Curtis. On April 3, 1999, bebop pianist Herman Foster passed away.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Joe Henderson was born on April 24, 1937 in Lima, Ohio and was encouraged by his parents to study music. Growing up he studied drums, piano, saxophone and composition, and listened to Lester Young, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, Flip Phillips, Lee Konitz and Jazz at the Philharmonic recordings. While in high school he wrote several scores for the school band and rock groups.

Active on the Detroit jazz scene by eighteen, Henderson was playing jam sessions with visiting New York stars in the mid-50s. He attended Wayne State University studying sax, flute and bass, Joe played with fellow classmates Yusef Lateef, Barry Harris and Donald Byrd.

A two-year Army stint saw him touring worldwide entertaining troops and while in Paris met Kenny Drew and Kenny Clarke. After discharge he moved to New York, and soon joined Horace Silver’s band, providing the seminal solo on Song For My Father. Leaving Silver he freelanced and in 1966 co-led a big band with Dorham, whose arrangements went unrecorded until 1996 on the Joe Henderson Big Band.

Henderson appeared on nearly three-dozen albums as a leader and over 50 as a sideman during his career. He would join but never record with Miles Davis, move to Milestone Records, co-lead the Jazz Communicators with Freddie Hubbard, became more politically and socially conscious with his music, played with Blood, Sweat & Tears briefly and started teaching.

He would play with Echoes Of An Era, the Griffith Park Band, Chick Corea, but remained a leader experiencing a resurgence in 1986, record for An Evening with Joe Henderson for Red Records, get signed with Verve and enjoy critical success and popularity after releasing Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn. On June 30, 2001, saxophonist Joe Henderson passed away of heart failure after a long battle with emphysema.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Candido was born Candido de Guerra Camero on April 22, 1921 in Havana, Cuba and learned to play percussion as a child listening to the music of his native land. Early in his career, Camero focused on conga and bongo, recording in his native Cuba with fellow jazz musician Machito. Although he has been credited as the first person to use the congas in jazz music, both Diego Iborra and Luciano “Chano” Pozo Gonzales preceded him in the 1940s.

Moving to New York in 1952 he started recording with Dizzy Gillespie and from 1953-54 he was in the Billy Taylor Quartet. The next year saw him performing and recording with Stan Kenton. During the Seventies Candido enjoyed success during the disco era, most notably with the Babatunde Olatunji-penned track “Jingo” from his Dancin’ and Prancin’ album on the Salsoul Record label, that has been acknowledged as  a precursor five years prior to the birth of the house music genre.

He has performed and recorded Errol Garner, Gene Ammons, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery, Elvin Jones and Lionel Hampton on the short list of jazz luminaries. Percussionist Candido was honored with the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award in 2008. At 96 years of age he is residing in his home in Cuba.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Herb Pomeroy was born Irving Herbert Pomeroy, III on April 15, 1930 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He began playing trumpet at an early age, and in his early teens started gigging in the greater Boston area, claiming inspiration from the music of Louis Armstrong. By age 16, he became a member of the Musicians Union and after high school, went on to study music at the Schillinger House that is now the Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was here he developed his interest in bebop.

Herb Pomeroy studied dentistry at Harvard University for a year but dropped out to pursue his jazz career. Charlie Parker liked Pomeroy’s playing and hired him frequently when the alto saxophonist performed at Boston’s Hi-Hat and Storyville clubs. Pomeroy also played with Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton and Serge Chaloff among other jazz musicians.

He led his own 13-piece big band in the early 1950s and another that gained national acclaim later in the decade. He would back up singers like Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, Irene Kral, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. By the mid Sixties he began abandoning the big band sound for small combos and switched from trumpet to flugelhorn.

Although his first love was performing, Pomeroy was a respected educator. He helped found the Jazz Workshop on Stuart Street, joined the faculties of the Berklee School of Music where he taught for 41 years, the Lenox School of Music, Music at MIT and was the director Festival Jazz Ensemble for 22 years. He was inducted into the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) Hall of Fame and the Down Beat Jazz Education Hall of Fame. On August 11, 2007, Herb Pomeroy, trumpeter and flugelhornist in the swing and bebop tradition passed away.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dorothy Donegan was born on April 6, 1922 and grew up in Chicago, Illinois.  She began studying piano at the age of eight taking her first lessons from West Indian pianist Alfred N. Simms. Graduating from DuSable High School she went on to study at the Chicago Musical College and the University of Southern California.

In 1942 she made her recording debut, appeared in Sensations of 1945 with Cab Calloway, Gene Rodgers and W.C. Fields, worked in Chicago nightclubs and was Art Tatum’s protégé.

Dorothy’s flamboyance helped her find work in a field that was largely hostile to women. To a certain extent, it was also her downfall; her concerts were often criticized for having an excess of personality. Her outspoken view of sexism, along with her insistence on being paid the same rates as male musicians, limited her career. However limited, her career would overshadow her recordings until the 80s when recognition of her jazz recordings would gain notice.

Pianist Dorothy Donegan, who played stride piano, boogie-woogie, bop, swing and classical music was the first Black woman to play at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, was a recipient of an American Jazz Master” fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and an honorary doctorate from Roosevelt University, passed away of cancer on May 19, 1998 in Los Angeles, California.

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