Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nelson “Cadillac” Williams was born on September 26, 1917 in Montgomery, Alabama and began playing piano at age 13, however, he settled on the trumpet soon afterwards. It has been speculated that while still a teenager he may have played with blues pianist/singer Cow Cow Davenport.
In the 1930s, he played in the territory bands Trianon Crackerjacks and Brown Skin Models, and acted as musical director for the Dixie Rhythm Girls. Around 1940, he left Alabama for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he played with Tiny Bradshaw’s band before joining the U.S. Army during World War II.
After the war, Billy Eckstine hired Williams, before working with John Kirby and pianist Billy Kyle. In 1949, he began the first of several stints with Duke Ellington, who bestowed upon him the nickname “Cadillac”.
In 1951, he left Ellington’s employ and moving to Paris, France he led his own bands and recorded for French labels. He returned to Ellington in 1956, and played with him again in 1969 on a tour of Europe. Trumpeter Nelson “Cadillac” Williams settled in the Netherlands and passed away in 1973 in Voorburg.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie Allen was born in Jackson, Mississippi on September 25, 1908 and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He began playing in the early 1920s just out of high school and through the decade worked as a member of the bands of Hugh Swift, Dave Peyton, Doc Cook, Clifford King, and Johnny Long.
Allen worked with Earl Hines from 1931 to 1934, then did a short stint in Duke Ellington’s orchestra in 1935, though he never recorded any solos with Ellington. He played with Fletcher Butler in 1936 and then returned to play with Hines again in 1937.
He played in various groups in Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. Later in his life he became a music educator, worked in the Chicago Musicians’ Union, and designed custom trumpet mouthpieces, used by Cat Anderson, among others.
Trumpeter Charlie Allen passed away on November 19, 1972 in Chicago.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bardu Ali was born September 23, 1906 in Mississippi. His mother, Ella, moved to the Bronx, New York, with her children and her sister Fanny. He moved into New York City in the 1920s and became leader of the Napoleon Zyas band. He was master of ceremonies for this band and for the bands of Leroy Tibbs and Chick Webb. He is credited with persuading Webb to hire singer Ella Fitzgerald.
Ali got involved with black cinema in the late 1920s and 1930s. He went on tour in England with Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds revue. Returning to the States, he replaced Webb as bandleader after Webb died.
1940 saw him move to California, where he became the business partner of Johnny Otis, performed as a singer in Otis’s band, and opened The Barrelhouse club with him in 1947. He played an important role in the early career of Charles Brown and was Redd Foxx’s business manager.
Guitarist, singer and promoter Bardu Ali, who performed in both jazz and R&B genres, passed away on October 29, 1981.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Francis Williams was born September 20, 1910 in McConnell’s Mill, Pennsylvania. His first gigs were with Frank Terry’s Chicago Nightingales in the 1930s.
In 1940 he moved to New York City, and in the first half of the decade played in the bands of Fats Waller, Claude Hopkins, Edgar Hayes, Ella Fitzgerald, Sabby Lewis, and Machito. From 1945 to 1949, and again in 1951, he played and recorded extensively as a member of Duke Ellington’s orchestra.
Williams worked primarily with Latin jazz ensembles and New York theater bands in the 1950s and 1960s, and played with Clyde Bernhardt and the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band. In addition to working with his own quartet, near the end of his life he worked with Panama Francis.
Trumpeter Francis Williams, who was a single father of two, had one son, actor Greg Morris, passed away on October 2, 1983 in Houston, Texas.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Larry Binyon was born on September 16, 1908 in Urbana, Illinois and his mother shared some of her musical knowledge. By age eighteen he was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,playing E flat soprano flute in the school’s concert band as well as flute and piccolo in its first regimental band during the 1926-27 school year.
After spending one year at college by 1927 he was already playing professionally in Chicago as part of Beasley Smith’s band, which also included drummer Ray McKinley and clarinetist Matty Matlock. Flute may have been his first instrument, or his primary one at school, but tenor saxophone became his main instrument for dance bands.
Later that year Binyon joined bandleader Ben Pollack when he returned to Victor’s Chicago studio after a five-month hiatus. History does not reveal him as a bandleader as there is little evidence of him having led his own bands, and no recordings were ever issued under his own name. He certainly has a load of credits as a band member, however, and was adept in both big band and small group settings.
Working a variety of radio jobs during the day, one eye glued open to help recover from the previous night’s late-ending gig.During the 1920s he worked with Irving Mills’ Hotsy-Totsy Gang, Roger Wolfe Kahn & His Orchestra, and Mildred Bailey with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra to name a few.
His widest exposure on recording is his backup work on records by the Boswell Sisters, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Fats Waller & His Buddies sessions, Henry “Red” Allen, Eddie Condon, Toby Hardwicke, Gene Krupa. Saxophonist, clarinetist, and flutist Larry Binyon passed away on February 10, 1974.
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