Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Johnny Richards was born Juan Manuel Cascales on November 2, 1911 in Querétaro, Mexico. His father immigrated to the United States into Laredo, Texas in 1919, the family settling first in Los Angeles, California and then in San Fernando, California where he attended and graduated from San Fernando High School. From there he went to Fullerton College in 1930.
Working in Los Angeles, California from the late 1930s to 1952 when he moved to New York City. He had been arranging for Stan Kenton since 1950 and continued to do so through the mid~Sixties while leading his own bands throughout his career. Additionally, he composed the music for the popular song Young at Heart in 1953, made famous by Frank Sinatra. He recorded nine albums as a leader and as a sideman/arranger working with Charlie Barnet, Harry James, Stan Kenton, and Hugo Lowenstern recorded another eight.
Arranger, composer, and bandleader Johnny Richards, who was a pivotal arranger for some of the more adventurous performances by Stan Kenton’s big band in the 1950s and early 1960, passed away from a brain tumor in New York, New York on October 7, 1968.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edgar Melvin Sampson, born October 31, 1907 in New York City, he started playing violin at the age of six and picked up the saxophone in high school. He started his professional career in 1924 with a violin-piano duo with Joe Colman and through the rest of the 1920s and early ’30s, he played with many bands, including those of Charlie “Fess” Johnson, Duke Ellington, Rex Stewart and Fletcher Henderson.
1933 saw him joining Chick Webb’s band. It was during his tenure with Webb that he created his most enduring work as a composer, writing Stompin’ at the Savoy and “Don’t Be That Way“. Leaving the Webb band in 1936 with a reputation as a composer and arranger, he was able to freelance with Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Red Norvo, Teddy Hill, Teddy Wilson, and Chick Webb.
Becoming a student of the Schillinger System in the early 1940s, Edgar continued to play saxophone through the late ’40s and led his own band from 1949 to 1951. Through the Fifties, he worked as an arranger for Latin performers Marcelino Guerra, Tito Rodríguez and Tito Puente.
He recorded one album under his own name, Swing Softly Sweet Sampson, in 1956. Due to illness, he stopped working by the late 1960s. Saxophonist, violinist, composer, arranger Edgar Sampson passed away on January 16, 1973 at the age of 65 in Englewood, New Jersey.
More Posts: arranger,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone,violin
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Jones was born on October 30, 1928 in Louisville, Kentucky and played drums as a child, starting on clarinet at age 8. His father encouraged him to explore jazz and
From 1949 into the mid-1950s he played with Ray McKinley, and then with Hal McIntyre before rejoining McKinley later in the decade. During a stint in the Army, he met Nat and Cannonball Adderley as well as Junior Mance. After getting his discharge, he played country music and rock & roll as a studio musician and did time with Boots Randolph and Glenn Miller before returning again with McKinley from 1959 to 1963.
Briefly playing with Woody Herman and Jack Teagarden in 1963, after the latter’s death, Bobby retired to Louisville and started a local jazz council and taught at Kentucky State College. In 1969 he moved to New York City and from 1970 to 1972 played with Charles Mingus, touring Europe and Japan with him. He also recorded sessions under his own name in 1972 and 1974.
Late in life saw him moving to Munich, Germany, where he ceased performing due to emphysema. Over the course of his career, he only recorded two albums as a leader, 15 as a sideman ~ 8 with Mingus and seven with Bill Cosby, Glen Miller, Woody Herman, Jimmy Raney, Willie Thomas and Bunky Green. Saxophonist Bobby Jones passed away on March 6, 1980 in Munich, Germany.
More Posts: bandleader,history instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Carl “Bama” Warwick was born on October 27, 1917 in Birmingham, Alabama and lived in Brookside, Alabama as a child. Moving northward in the early 1930s he lived with Charlie Shavers and together they moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1936. There they became members of Frank Fairfax’s band, playing alongside Dizzy Gillespie.
They subsequently played with Tiny Bradshaw and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band. After Shavers left to join John Kirby’s ensemble, Carl then worked with Teddy Hill, Edgar Hayes, Don Redman, and Bunny Berigan. During World War II, he conducted a military band, and played with Woody Herman in 1944-45, then with Buddy Rich.
In the 1950s he led his own group and also worked with Lucky Millinder and Brew Moore; he returned to Gillespie’s employ in 1956, playing intermittently with him until 1961. He took a position in 1966 directing music with the New York City Department of Corrections, and in 1972, he appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival with Benny Carter.
Trumpeter Carl Bama Warwick passed away in 2003, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Theodore Powell was born on October 24, 1914. He played on two recording dates with Billie Holiday for Columbia Records, the first in 1940, was with a band comprising of trumpeter Roy Eldridge, alto saxophonists Carl Frye and Powell, tenor saxophonist Kermit Scott, pianist Sonny White, guitarist Lawrence Lucie, bassist John Williams, and Hal West on drums. The second recording session was in 1941, again with Eldridge, Lester Boone, Ernie Powell, and Jimmy Powell on alto saxophones, Eddie Heywood on piano, Paul Chapman on guitar, Grachan Moncur on bass, and drummer Herbert Cowans.
1944 had Jimmy recording with Billy Eckstine and His Orchestra, with Oscar Pettiford, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Gene Ammons, Thomas Crump, Wardell Gray, Dizzy Gillespie, Chippy Outcalt, and Trummie Young, among others. The album was released in 1960 as Mr. B. In 1945, he recorded in New York with Don Byas and Hal Singer.
At the beginning of 1947, Powell was with Illinois Jacquet and his Orchestra, which featured Miles Davis, Marion Hazel, Fats Navarro and Joe Newman on trumpets, Gus Chapwell, Ted Kelly, Eli Robinson and Dickie Wells on trombones, Ray Perry and Powell on alto saxes, Jacquet and Big Nick Nicholas on tenor saxes, Leo Parker on baritone sax, Bill Doggett and Leonard Feather on piano, Al Lucas on bass and Shadow Wilson on drums, together with Tadd Dameron and Jimmy Mundi as arrangers. And again, in April the same year, with a slightly different line-up, this time featuring Russell Jacquet, Navarro and Newman on trumpets, J.J. Johnson on trombone, Powell or Ray Perry on alto, Illinois Jacquet on tenor, Leo Parker on baritone, Sir Charles Thompson on piano, Freddie Green on guitar, Al Lucas on bass and Shadow Wilson on drums.
In 1956, Powell was a member of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band that recorded Groovin’ High live at Birdland with Walter Bishop on piano, Nelson Boyd on bass, Marty Flax on baritone, Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Carl Warwick and Joe Gordon on trumpets, Benny Golson and Ernie Wilkins on tenor, Ernie Henry and Phil Woods on alto saxes, Roy Levitt and Melba Liston on trombones. He went on to record several albums with Gillespie.
Alto saxophonist Jimmy Powell, who never recorded as a leader but as a sideman was part of nine recording sessions, passed away on February 16, 1994.
More Posts: history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone