Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Zinky Cohn was born on August 18, 1908 in Oakland, California. Little is known about his childhood but it has been speculated by many Jewish historians he descended from one of the so-called 12 tribes.
Moving to Chicago, Illinois in the late 1920s, he played around town and from 1928 to 1930 was a member of Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra. He recorded extensively with Noone between 1929 and 1934, especially for Vocalion Records. Many of the tunes Noone recorded were written and/or arranged by Cohn, including Apex Blues, previously attributed to Earl Hines.
Cohn also recorded as a leader in the early 1930s, with a band that featured Leon Washington on tenor saxophone. Cohn recorded with Frankie Franko & His Louisianans in 1930, and also accompanied blues singers such as Georgia White.
Later in the 1930s he led the Chicago musicians’ union, and continued to play locally. Pianist Zinky Cohn passed away on April 26, 1952 in Chicago.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Joseph Smith was born August 13, 1938 in Tiline, Kentucky. At the age of 6 years, he gave his first concert of original solo piano music in Nashville, Tennessee. After serving in the United States Navy, he studied electro-acoustic music, moving between Boston, Massachusetts and New York City. He became involved with the New England Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School and developed a philosophy and notation form of his original music, titled Geomusic, and composed works with this method for various chamber groups, solo piano, and symphony orchestra.
Embarking on his first European concert tour in 1970, he completed his initial recordings in Italy and developed an interest in Jazz and improvisation. Moving to Paris, France in 1972 he had several concert tours and recordings in Western Europe and America with Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton and others. In 1975 he began recording various albums in Europe and America and toured, mostly solo, Italy, Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Western Europe, South America and Scandinavia over the next year. 1977 saw Michael admitted to the Swedish Composers Society andtwo years later he became a member of the International Society for Contemporary Music.
A return to the United States landed a composer-in-residence in Atlanta, Georgia and completed three ballet projects, has been awarded numerous cultural prizes and stipends in Europe and Scandinavia, and has composed scores for films, television projects, and music for 10 major ballet works.
He has lectured in Atlanta, Boston, Massachusetts, Brunswick, Maine and in Beijing and Xian, China. He has founded three music corporations and has been inducted in the Royal Swedish Academy of Music’s Swedish Musical Heritage project as a “living musical heritage” of Sweden. Pianist and composer Michael Smith, who has released 55 recordings of original compositions in 17 countries and has three film portraits of his life, continues to remain active.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billy Douglas was born on August 12, 1912 in New Haven, Connecticut. He played with Larry Ringold while young, both having been in the same boys’ institution. He played locally in his teens, then moved to New York City in 1932 as a member of Earle Howard’s band.
In 1933-34 he went on to play with Percy Nelson in Hartford, Connecticut. He then played in the South with Jimmy Gunn. Don Albert picked him up in 1934, and Douglas remained in Albert’s orchestra through 1937.
Doing freelance work for a time, he then worked with Earl Hines for several years in the early 1940s. After 1945 he returned to New Haven where he performed locally until his retirement. Trumpeter and vocalist Billy Douglas passed away in 1978.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nathaniel Edward Story was born on August 8, 1904 in Oak Station, Kentucky. He played on riverboats on the Mississippi River with Fate Marable and Floyd Campbell in the 1920s, and played with the Jones & Collins Astoria Hot Eight in 1928.
Moving to New York City in the 1930s, he worked with Luis Russell, Sam Wooding, and Chick Webb. After Webb’s death he remained in the orchestra under the direction of Ella Fitzgerald, but left in 1940.
Early in the 1940s he played with Andy Kirk and Lucky Millinder, but went into semi-retirement after this, though he performed occasionally into the 1960s. Trombonist Nat Story passed away on November 21, 1968 in Evansville, Indiana.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Otto Lington was born on August 5, 1903 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The son of a clown, he showed an early interest in music and got his first professional arrangement as a musician at 14 years old. During the 1920s and 1930s he led his own orchestras and held jobs as a leader of orchestras, such as Kai Ewans in Denmark , Jack Harris in Sweden and Bernard Etté in Germany.
He was one of the pioneers of jazz in Denmark and was nicknamed The White Negro. In 1929, Otto performed the first major jazz concert in Denmark, where, among other things, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue was performed.
For many years during 1951 ~ 1952 and 1958 ~ 1972 Lington led the orchestra at the Tivoli in Copenhagen, but also at many theaters, revue establishments and the like.
Violinist., composer, music publisher and bandleader Otto Lington, was a pioneer of jazz in Denmark, passed away on December 15, 1992 and interred at Søndermark Cemetery in Frederiksberg, Denmark.
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