Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Waymon Reed was born on January 10, 1940 in Fayetteville, North Carolina and attended the Eastman School of Music. He went on to play with trumpeter/saxophonist Ira Sullivan. Joining James Brown’s band from 1965 to 1969, he played on It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.
Reed worked with the big bands of Frank Foster and Thad Jones-Mel Lewis. He became a member of the Count Basie Orchestra in 1969, staying until 1973. He returned to play with Basie again in 1977–78.
He married Sarah Vaughan and worked with her from 1978–80, but shortly afterwards they divorced. He played on B.B. King’s album There Must Be A Better World Somewhere in 1981. In 1977, Reed recorded his one album as leader, 46th and 8th, featuring tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest, pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Keter Betts and drummer Bobby Durham.
Trumpeter Waymon Reed, who was principally a bebop soloist, transitioned from cancer on November 25, 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Walter Bishop Sr. was born on January 9, 1905 in Jamaica but emigrated to the United States prior to beginning his professional career. He settled with his family in the Sugar Hill district of the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan.
He played drums on recordings by pianist Alex Hill and trumpeter Jabbo Smith during the 1920s and 1930s. His song Swing, Brother, Swing was recorded by Billie Holiday with Count Basie, among other performers.
Other songs written by Bishop include Jack, You’re Dead, which was a #1 R&B hit in 1947 as recorded by Louis Jordan, The Stuff is Here (and It’s Mellow), and Bop! Goes My Heart, which was recorded by Frank Sinatra.
His song My Baby Likes to Bebop was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, and by Nat “King” Cole with Johnny Mercer, and his calypso “Sex is a Misdemeanor” was recorded by Vanessa Rubin.
Drummer, composer and songwriter Walter Bishop Sr., the father of jazz pianist Walter Bishop Jr., transitioned one day before his 80th birthday on January 8, 1984.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Judd Proctor was born Procter on January 2, 1931 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. He played banjo in his youth and joined a local trio, but switched to guitar in his teens. He won a regional Melody Maker contest in a group, The Zetland Players. By the age of 18 he was conscripted into the Royal Air Force, where he met and was influenced by guitarist Ike Isaacs. After his military service ended, he worked in accountancy for British Rail, but soon left to join a dance band in Nottingham and became a professional musician.
After playing in various bands he joined Ray Ellington’s quartet in 1955, remaining for six years. He appeared on many radio broadcasts including The Goon Show. The early Sixties saw Proctor become a session musician, appearing on recordings by Cliff Richard, Helen Shapiro, The Springfields, Cilla Black, Serge Gainsbourg, Harry Nilsson and many others. In his later years he worked with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. He recorded some instrumentals under his own name, including the 1961 single Palamino/Nola, and a 1968 LP, Guitars Galore.
Judd appeared on many television shows with Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., and Victoria Wood, and on many film soundtracks. The 1960s through the ‘80s had him touring with Stanley Black, a member of the Don Lusher Orchestra, and with the Bert Kaempfert Orchestra. His last and longest regular gig was providing incidental music for the TV comedy series Last of the Summer Wine.
Guitarist and session musician Judd Proctor, whose name was often misspelled on early recordings, transitioned on August 21, 2020 in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire, England at the age of 89.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Helmut Brandt was born in Berlin Germany on January 1, 1931 and began singing in a church choir as a boy. He played violin from age ten before learning saxophone and guitar at a conservatory.
He began playing professionally in 1950 initially as a tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. Brandt switched to baritone in 1954 and led his own group.Through the end of the 1950s he worked in a Berlin radio dance band, and played in the orchestras of Lubo D’Orio and Kurt Widmann.
Baritone saxophonist Helmut Brandt, whose Mainstream Orchestra was popular in Berlin in the 1970s, transitioned from a heart attack on July 26, 2001.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cutty Cutshall was born Robert Dewees Cutshall on December 29, 1911 in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Early in his career he played in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, making his first major tour in 1934 with Charley Dornberger. He joined Jan Savitt’s orchestra in 1938, then played with Benny Goodman in the early 1940s.
Later in the decade he worked frequently with Billy Butterfield and did some freelance work in New York City. He started working with Eddie Condon in 1949, an association which lasted over a decade. Cutshall’s credits include work with Peanuts Hucko, Bob Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong.
While touring with Condon in Toronto, trombonist Cutty Cutshall suffered a heart attack in his hotel room and transitioned on August 16, 1968.
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