Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Johnny Hodges was born John Keith Hodges on July 25, 1906 in Cambridge, Massachusetts but soon after the family moved to Boston. Growing up with baritone saxophonist Harry Carney and saxophonists Charlie Holmes and Howard E. Johnson, he started out on drums and piano and was mostly self-taught. He became good enough to play the piano at dances in private homes. By the time he was a teenager, he took up the soprano saxophone and around this time he picked up the nickname “Rabbit”, either for his ability to outrun truant officers or his nibbling on lettuce and tomato sandwiches.
When Hodges was 14 he saw Sidney Bechet, introduced himself, played a tune, received encouragement to continue to play and grew a name for himself in the Boston area till he moved to New York in 1924, able to play both the alto and soprano saxophone.
Hodges started playing with Lloyd Scott, Sidney Bechet, Lucky Roberts and Chick Webb. In 1928 he joined the Ellington orchestra and became one of the identifying voices on both alto and soprano sax. Leaving Duke in 1951 to lead his own band, he returned four years later shortly before Ellington’s 1956 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. Ellington would write pieces like “Confab with Rab”, “Jeep’s Blues”, “Sultry Sunset”, “Hodge Podge” and “Prelude To A Kiss” among many others that featured Hodge.
Johnny’s pure tone and economy of melody on both the blues and ballads won him admiration from musicians of all eras and styles, from Ben Webster to John Coltrane, who both played with him when he had his own orchestra in the 1950s, to Lawrence Welk, who featured him in an album of standards.
Alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges’ last recordings are featured on the New Orleans Suite album and his final performances were at the Imperial Room in Toronto, less than a week before his death from a heart attack on May 11, 1970. He is considered one of the definitive alto saxophones players of swing in the Big Band Era and of mainstream jazz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Etienne Charles was born in Trinidad on July 24, 1983 into a family with four generations of musicians. He was immersed in the folk music of his country suffused with the sounds of calypso, steel pan and African Shango drumming to create the diverse colors of his harmonic palette.
The Bishop Anstey Junior School proved to be a potent incubator where he began playing the recorder, followed by trumpet at 10 and formal lessons. An athlete with prowess, Etienne eclipsed his musical success with academics with football, cricket, swimming and water polo teams at Fatima College, winning the Provincial Cup three times, first at the age of 13. He studied privately, at the Brass Institute, become a member of the band, added drums and percussion, landed his first job in a pit orchestra, worked with his father on the road during carnival and with Phase II for the Panorama steel pan competition.
By sixteen Charles was attending the summer performance program at Berklee College of Music, then on to Florida State University, placed or won several competitions, performed at North Sea Jazz Festival, attended the Henry Mancini Institute and received his Master’s from Julliard School of Music.
Etienne has toured, performed or recorded with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, Grammy Award winners Roberta Flack, Wynton Marsalis, Johnny Mandel, Ralph MacDonald, Maria Schneider and the Count Basie Orchestra as well as Marcus Roberts, Monty Alexander, Frank Foster, Wycliffe Gordon, Rene Marie, Lord Blakie and David Rudder.
He released his debut album “Culture Shock” in 2006 was followed by “Folklore” three years later and then “Kaiso”. Trumpeter and composer Etienne Charles stands at the vanguard of a new generation of Caribbean musicians and he continues to record, perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nat Pierce was born on July 16, 1925 in Somerville, Massachusetts. Learning to play piano as a child he went on to attend the New England Conservatory. After graduation he worked as an amateur musician around Boston, then led his own band featuring Charlie Mariano from 1949-51. He would go on to play with Woody Herman through 1966 as chief arranger and asst. road manager.
Taking up residence in New York City, Nat freelanced with musicians such as Pee Wee Russell, Lester Young, Emmett Berry and ruby Braff, to name a few. From 1957-1959 Pierce led his second band off and on which featured Buck Clayton, Gus Johnson and Paul Quinichette. He recorded with a number of other well-known musicians as well, including Quincy Jones, Coleman Hawkins and Pee Wee Russell.
Pierce arranged the music for The Sound of Jazz, a 1954 CBS television special hosted by John Crosby. Most of the pieces he composed and arranged were predominantly created for the use in big bands. Pianist Nat Pierce passed away on June 10, 1992.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George E. Lewis was born July 14, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois. He began his musical journey playing the trombone but graduated from Yale University with a degree in philosophy. In 1971 he became a member of AACM, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.
The trombonist, composer and pioneer of computer music has recorded over two dozen albums as a leader and co-leader and some 40 as a sideman working with the likes of Muhal Richard Abrams, Gil Evans, Conny Bauer, Roscoe Mitchell, Count Basie and Anthony Braxton to name a few. He was also frequently a member of the ICP Orchestra (Instant Composer’s Pool).
As an educator in the 1970s, he succeeded Rhys Chatham as the music director of The Kitchen, a performance space in Greenwich Village, has served as a professor at Columbia University, the University of California – San Diego, and has received a MacArthur Fellowship.
Trombonist George Lewis has performed at festivals and venues throughout America and Europe, has authored a book-length history of the AACM, titled A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music, and continues to be active of the jazz and experimental music scene.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Henry Lowther was born Thomas Henry Lowther on July 11, 1941 Leicester, Leicestershire, England. Learning trumpet, his first experience was on cornet in a Salvation Army band. He studied violin briefly at the Royal Academy of Music but returned to trumpet by 1960 though he sometimes played violin professionally.
In the 1960s, he worked with pianist and composer Mike Westbrook, a relationship that lasted into the 80s, Manfred Mann, John Dankworth from 1967-77, Graham Collier, John Mayall, John Warren, and would appear with the Keef Hartley Band.
The Seventies brought work with Mike Gibbs, Kenny Wheeler, Tony Coe, Gordon Beck and Barbara in addition to his own ensemble, Quaternity. In the 80s Henry worked with the Buzzcocks, Talk Talk, Peter King, Gil Evans, Humphrey Lyttleton on a Buddy Bolden documentary.
He played with Charlie Watts’ band in the late 80s, and then led his own band, Still Waters. From the late 1980s he did much work in big bands, such as the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra and the London Jazz Composers Orchestra; in the Nineties he worked with Kenny Wheeler’s group, The Dedication Orchestra, the London Jazz Orchestra, George Russell’s Living Time Orchestra, and the Creative Jazz Orchestra. Trumpeter Henry Lowther most recently plays in the band Jazzmoss.
