Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sal Salvador was born Silvio Smiraglia on November 21, 1925 in Monson, Massachusetts and began his professional career in New York City, New York. He eventually moved to Stamford, Connecticut.
In addition to recordings with Stan Kenton and with his own groups, Salvador can be heard in the film Blackboard Jungle, during a scene in a bar where a recording on which he is featured is played on the jukebox. He is also featured playing with Sonny Stitt in the film, Jazz on a Summer’s Day, at the Newport Jazz Festival.
He taught guitar at the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, Connecticut as well as at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut. He wrote several instruction books for beginning to advanced guitarists.
Guitarist and educator Sal Salvador transitioned on September 22, 1999 following a fight with cancer at the age of 73.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
André Persiany was born on November 19, 1927 in Paris, France. His father taught him violin and piano as a child, and by 1945, he had formed his own ensemble. He was a member of the Be Bop Minstrels with Hubert and Raymond Fol in 1947, then played with Michel Attenoux, Eddie Bernard, Bill Coleman, Buck Clayton, Raymond Fonsèque, Lionel Hampton, Guy Lafitte, Mezz Mezzrow, and Tony Proteau.
Relocating to New York City in the mid-1950s, saw him playing at Birdland and working extensively with Jonah Jones. In 1969 he returned to Paris and held a residency as the pianist at Le Furstenberg from 1970 to 1988. His associations in the 1970s included Cat Anderson, Milt Buckner, Eddie Chamblee, Arnett Cobb, Al Grey, Budd Johnson, and Charlie Shavers.
Pianist André Persiany, whose son Stéphane became a double-bassist, transitioned on January 2, 2004 in Paris.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Elmer “Sonny” Dunham was born November 16, 1911 in Brockton, Massachusetts and attended local schools, taking lessons on the valve trombone at the age of 7. He changed to the slide trombone at the age of 11, and was playing in local bands at 13. He began his musical career as a trombone player in the Boston, Massachusetts area.
By the late 1920s he had moved to New York City where he played with Ben Bernie for six months before moving on in 1929 to Paul Tremaine’s Orchestra. He remained there for two years and while working as an arranger and vocalist with Tremaine’s group he switched to the trumpet.
In 1931 he left Tremaine and for a few months led his own group, calling it Sonny Dunham and his New York Yankees. That same year along with clarinettist Clarence Hutchenrider, trombonist-singer Pee Wee Hunt and singer Kenny Sargent, he was recruited by Glen Gray for Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra. During the golden years of Casa Loma, he was a popular soloist, scoring a big hit with his trumpet work on Memories of You. He stayed until 1936, when he formed another more unusual group, Sonny Lee and The New Yorkers Band, which featured 14 pieces, with ten of his musicians doubling on trumpet.
Moving to Europe for three months, he then returned to the Casa Loma Orchestra, remaining until 1940 when he tried again to form his own group, this time, with more success. They debuted in 1940 at the Glendale Auditorium in Los Angeles, California and toured and held talent searches throughout the United States. After returning to New York in 1941, they were on nightly radio broadcasts at the Roseland Ballroom, and the Meadowbrook at Cedar Grove, New Jersey.
On the road in California the band played Los Angeles, were featured in the Universal picture Behind the Eight Ball with the Ritz Brothers and he served as musical director for this film, and was part of a vaudeville revue. Over the next couple of decades he would divide his time between New York and Los Angeles with stints in Chicago, Illinois. Dunham briefly experimented with dual female vocalists, Mickie Roy and Dorothy Claire, which did not turn out due to professional temperament.
Dissolving the band in 1951 Sonny joined Tommy Dorsey’s band as trumpet player, then reorganized the next year, remaining active until the decline of the big-band business. By the 1970s obscurity set in, however, he recorded playing trombone on a few LPs with Don Goldie’s Dixieland revival bands.
In the 1980s trumpeter, trombonist and bandleader Sonny Dunham, who was living in a trailer in Miami, Florida and still involved in booking bands for cruises and playing occasionally, transitioned from cancer on July 9, 1990, aged 78.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Fierstone was born in London, England on November 14, 1916. He played with a traveling revue in 1931, then played around the city with such bandleaders as Bert Ambrose, Harry Roy, Sid Millward and the Heralds of Swing through the rest of the decade.
The Forties then saw him playing with Frank Weir and Harry Hayes. During this time he also did copious studio work. He worked in an RAF dance band during World War II, and after the war’s end this ensemble performed and recorded as The Skyrockets from 1946 to 1953.
George accompanied Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, among others. He continued to work freelance into the 1980s.
Drummer George Fierstone transitioned on April 13, 1984 in his hometown.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Ostend Brown was born on November 9, 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland and learned to play piano, trumpet, and saxophone in his youth. Professionally known as Pete Brown, he played in New York City with Bernie Robinson’s orchestra in 1928, and played from 1928 to 1934 with Charlie Skeete.
1937 saw him working in the John Kirby band for several years and during the decade he worked with Frankie Newton, who was also a member of Kirby’s band. Brown and Newton recorded often. In addition to recording under his own name, he also recorded with Willie “The Lion” Smith, Jimmie Noone, Buster Bailey, Leonard Feather, Joe Marsala, and Maxine Sullivan.
Pete worked on 52nd Street in New York City in the 1940s, both as a sideman with Slim Gaillard, among others. As a bandleader, he was in Allen Eager’s 52nd Street All-Stars in 1946.
In the 1950s, Brown’s health began to fail, and he receded from full-time performance. He played with Joe Wilder, Big Joe Turner, Sammy Price, and Champion Jack Dupree. He appeared at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival with Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldridge. His last appearance was in 1960 with Dizzy Gillespie.
Alto saxophonist and bandleader Pete Brown, who was Cecil Payne and Flip Phillips teacher, transitioned on September 20, 1963 in New York City.
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