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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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Earl Bowman Swope was born on August 4, 1922 in Hagerstown, Maryland into a musical family: his parents, a sister and two brothers were all musicians. When he was 20, he played with Sonny Dunham.
During the Forties, from 1943~47 he played with Boyd Raeburn, Georgie Auld, and Buddy Rich. Then, from 1947 to 1949 he worked with Woody Herman and recorded in small groups with Stan Getz and Serge Chaloff. The Fifties began with Earl working with Elliot Lawrence, then worked freelance in New York and Washington, D.C.
Later in the 1950s he returned to big band work, playing with Jimmy Dorsey and Louie Bellson. Residing in Washington, D.C. in the 1960s he played locally until his death. Trombonist Earl Swope, whose style was not influenced by J. J. Johnson and played in a modern barrelhouse style, passed away on January 3, 1968.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kamil Hala was born on August 1, 1914 in Most, Czechoslovakia. During the late Fifties he led his own orchestra. He was a member of the Czechoslovak Radio Dance Orchestra beginning in 1960, starting as a pianist and later as its arranger and conductor. After the orchestra split in 1963 he was the conductor of the Czechoslovak Radio Jazz Orchestra until the 1990s.
Pianist composer, arranger, and conductor Kamil Hala passed away on October 29, 2014 in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
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