Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Don Barrigo was born on June 12, 1906 in London, England. A competent tenor saxophonist, he was active in his hometown and New York City, New York in the 1920s and 30s.
Among the artists with whom Don played and sometimes recorded were Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang. In the UK he played with Nat Gonella, Harry and Sid Roy, Billy Mayerl, Al Bowlly, Percival Mackey, Bert Bowen, Howard Jacobs and the Freddy Schweitzer Band. In the States he played with Don Parker and Louis Armstrong, and in France with Serge Glykson.
By 1940 he was a member of Maurice Winnick’s dance band alongside fellow sideman Ted Heath. Tenor saxophonist Don Barrigo transitioned on May 4, 1977.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Prince Robinson was born in Portsmouth, Virginia on June 7, 1902. He learned to play clarinet as a teenager and after playing locally in Virginia, he moved to New York City, New York in 1923. Once settled Robinson quickly found work both performing and recording, with the Blue Rhythm Orchestra, June Clark, Duke Ellington, Billy Fowler, the Gulf Coast Seven, Fletcher Henderson, Lionel Howard, Clara Smith, and Elmer Snowden. He went on to tour South America with Leon Abbey’s group in 1927, and the following year became a member of McKinney’s Cotton Pickers.
The Thirties saw Prince working with Lil Armstrong, Willie Bryant, Blanche Calloway, Roy Eldridge, and Teddy Wilson accompanying Billie Holiday. His career continued in the 1940s, including work with Louis Armstrong, Lucky Millinder, and Benny Morton. In 1945 he joined Claude Hopkins’s band, remaining until 1952. Later in the decade he worked with Fletcher Henderson again and with Red Allen and Freddie Washington, in addition to leading his own ensemble in 1953.
His last recording was Mainstream Jazz by Andy Gibson and His Orchestra in 1959. He played a tenor saxophone solo on the theme Blueprint. Tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Prince Robinson transitioned on July 23, 1960 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ginger Smock was born Emma Smock on June 4, 1920 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from Jefferson High School and studied violin privately with Bessie Dones. By the time she hit the age of 10 she appeared as a soloist at the Hollywood Bowl. She was featured on Clarence Muse’s radio program at the age of thirteen performing Edward MacDowell’s To A Wild Rose. She earned degrees in music from Los Angeles City College, and the Zoellner Conservatory of Music. At the latter institution she was a pupil of Edith Smith.
During 1944 she led a trio with Nina Russell and Mata Roy. In 1951, she led an all-female sextette, featuring Clora Bryant, on the Chicks and the Fiddle show hosted by Phil Moore that broadcasted for six weeks on CBS. The next year she was the featured soloist on KTLA’s variety show, Dixie Showboat.
1953 had Smock recording as part of a group with Gerald Wiggins, Freddie Simon, Red Callender, and Rudy Pitts, accompanying the vocalist Cecil “Count” Carter.
During the mid 1970s, she spent ten years as concertmaster of show orchestras in Las Vegas. In addition to her work in jazz and rhythm & blues, she performed with the All City Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles. A violin owned by Smock is in the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Violinist, orchestra leader, and local Los Angeles television personality Ginger Smock, who recorded as a leader but is perhaps best known from her recordings with the Vivien Garry Quintet, transitioned on June 13, 1995.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ronnie Bedford was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on June 2, 1931. He started early on the drums, taking lessons from Fred Albright of the NBC Orchestra when he was ten. Later he started listening to radio airchecks of the great big bands on the radio which, among other things, resulted in Gene Krupa becoming his idol. Although he was already in jazz, the defining moment when he fully committed to the jazz life came in 1970 while he was with the Morris Nanton Trio.
He went on to perform with Broadway shows, big bands, small groups, TV, and the recording studio. A very short list of those he has sat in at drums are Hank Jones, Sylvia Sims, Arnett Cobb, Benny Carter, Walter Norris, and Bill Watrous. The drummer has also performed at key jazz festivals and major concert halls including the Newport Jazz Festival, Royal Albert Hall in London and New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, both with Benny Goodman, and the Smithsonian Museum with Benny Carter.
In 1993 he released a self-published album titled Tour de West. He later produced three more albums before the turn of the century on the Progressive Records label. As a sideman he recorded with Carter, Cobb, Jones, Chris Connor, Buddy DeFranco, Don Friedman, Rod Levitt, Pee Wee Russell, Derek Smith and Chuck Wayne.
He was one of the founders of the Yellowstone Jazz Festival held annually in Cody, Wyoming, and was the recipient of the 1993 Wyoming Governor’s Award for the Arts. Living in Powell, Wyoming he taught percussion at Northwest College. Drummer and professor Ronnie Bedford transitioned on December 20, 2014.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harry Alexander White was born on June 1, 1898 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, he played drums, then switched to trombone after moving to Washington, D.C. around 1919. In the early Twenties he played with Duke Ellington, Elmer Snowden, and Claude Hopkins. Then in 1925 he formed the family band called the White Brothers Orchestra, which played the mid-Atlantic states for several years with regular gigs in New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Late in the 1920s, he played with Luis Russell, then joined the Mills Blue Rhythm Band in 1931. The following year he joined Cab Calloway’s orchestra, working as an arranger and composer in addition to his duties on trombone. One of Calloway’s trumpeters, Edwin Swayze, overheard Harry use the term “jitterbug”, and wrote a tune called The Jitterbug. Calloway’s 1934 recording of the song brought the term into widespread currency.
Returning to play with Russell in 1935 when the band was backing Louis Armstrong, he eventually quit playing for part of the Thirties decade. He would later perform with Manzie Johnson, Hot Lips Page, Edgar Hayes, and Bud Freeman.
Trombonist, pianist, saxophonist, arranger and composer Harry White, who was affectionately known as Father White, transitioned on August 14, 1962 in New York City.
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