Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Louis Bacon was born on November 1, 1904 in Louisville, Kentucky. His family moved to Chicago, Illinois when he was a young child. After a short stint playing with Zinky Cohn in Michigan, he relocated to New York City in 1928. There he worked through 1938 with musicians Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Duke Ellington, Bingie Madison, Bessie Smith, and Chick Webb among others.

Contracting tuberculosis in 1938, resulting in a performance hiatus, but by early 1939 he was playing with Benny Carter once more. Later that same year, he embarked on a tour of Europe with Willie Lewis and remained there for two years. He recorded under his own name as well as with Lewis and Freddy Johnson.

After his return to the United States he worked with Garvin Bushell, Cootie Williams, and Jesse Stone. Shortly after the end of World War II, he stopped playing once again due to persistent health problems. He did play trumpet again briefly in 1959–60, working in New York, and late in his career taught voice and sang with Wilbur De Paris.

Trumpeter and vocalist Louis Bacon transitioned on December 8, 1967.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Elmon Wright was born on October 27, 1929 in Kansas City, Missouri to trumpeter Lammar Wright Sr. and the brother of trumpeter Lammar Wright Jr. Following in his father’s and brother’s footsteps, he learned to play the trumpet.

Wright played with Don Redman early in his career, then with Dizzy Gillespie’s first big band in 1945. He then went on to play with Roy Eldridge and then went back to Gillespie’s band, touring and recording with him from 1946 until 1950.

He toured with Earl Bostic for a year in 1954, then worked as a freelance musician in New York City, performing at the Apollo Theater in Harlem with R&B and rock groups. He played with Buddy Rich and Earle Warren in 1959 and recorded with Milt Jackson in 1963. Trumpeter Elmon Wright transitioned in 1984.

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Donald Arthur Rader was born October 21, 1935 in Rochester, New York and began playing trumpet at age five, being taught by his father. He studied at Sam Houston State Teachers College before serving in the Navy in the 1950s as a member of the band.

At the end of the decade he played and arranged for Woody Herman into the Sixties, followed by Maynard Ferguson, Count Basie, Louie Bellson, Harry James, Terry Gibbs, Frank Foster, Henry Mancini, Les Brown from 1967 to 1972. Then he left Brown for the Stan Kenton Orchestra.

He toured with Della Reese, Sarah Vaughn, Andy Williams, Percy Faith, Diana Ross, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope, both intermittently for 28 years with five tours of wartime Vietnam with the latter.

Assembling a quintet in Los Angeles, California in 1972 Don continued working with West Coast jazz musicians, including Lanny Morgan, Lew Tabackin, and Toshiko Akiyoshi. He recorded as a leader and worked in music education for many years, including in Australia in the 1980s.

He has recorded eight albums as a leader, and as a sideman three with Count Basie, and seven with Maynard Ferguson. Trumpeter Don Rader continues to perform at the age of 87.

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Conrad Lanoue was born on October 18, 1908 in Cohoes, New York. He started on piano when he was ten years old and attended the Troy Conservatory.

Beginning his career in his 20s, he played piano at hotels in his hometown. Conrad recorded with Red McKenzie in 1935, and under the combined leadership of trumpeter Eddie Farley and trombonist Mike Riley in 1935–36. During the 1930s he worked for Louis Prima, then Wingy Manone from 1936 to 1940 followed by playing with pianist Joe Haymes.

From the 1940s to the 1960s, he was a member of bands led by Lester Lanin, Charles Peterson, and Hal Landsberry. He also wrote big band arrangements. Pianist and arranger Conrad Lanoue, who never recorded as a leader, retired in 1968 due to illness and transitioned in Albany, New York on October 15, 1972.

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David Bee was born on October 17, 1903 in Brussels, Belgium. He was a multi-instrumentalist adept on clarinet, harp, piano, and alto and tenor saxophone. For a year in 1924 he played with the group Bistrouille ADO before co-founding an ensemble with Peter Packay called Red Beans. The group toured widely throughout western Europe.

After returning to Belgium, David joined Robert De Kers’s band, and also played in Paris, France at Chez Florencewith Benny Carter and Willie Lewis. He recorded with Gus Deloof in the early Forties and after World War II he played with Robert Bosmans and Chas Dolne later in the decade. He led his own bands and groups at various times in the 1950s and continued recording late into the decade and the 60s.

As a composer, Bee pennedr the tunes High Tension recorded by Luis Russell) and Obsession recorded by Ted Heath and Reg Owen.

Clarinetist, harpist, pianist, alto and tenor saxophonist, arranger and composer David Bee, also known as Ernest Craps, Ernie Sparks, and Manuel Travo, transitioned in 1992.

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