Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Carlson was born May 05, 1914 in New York City, New York. Starting to learn at an early age, there were occasional early rhythm sections that featured a form of sibling musical rivalry between him and his bassit brother Anthony that some bandleaders swear produces the tightest-possible timekeeping. Starting his career during the swing era of the big band, he held down the drums in the Woody Herman Orchestra from 1937 to 1942. During the Forties he was chosen by Fred Astaire to play drums on his movie soundtracks in the 40’s.
Coming out of the big band era Carlson became a busy studio-session drummer who played on a huge number of hit records, including those by Doris Day, Bing Crosby, and Elvis Presley. His cache with hipsters comes mostly from getting the studio call to back the brilliant actor, hellraiser, and occasional recording artist Robert Mitchum.
The drummer also collaborated early on with leaders such as Gene Kardos and Clyde McCoy. Tiring of the pounding required for his drums to be heard above the roaring stampede of Herman’s herd, Frank headed to the West Coast and a freelance career. His phone would ring with a variety of offers, from the aforementioned studio activity to percussion responsibilities with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
He played on film soundtracks, and supposedly pointed out the chariot race in Ben Hur as one of the few experiences playing behind something that was louder than the Herman band. The height of his busy years were the ’50s and early ’60s. By the time pop groups began playing drums on their own records, drummer Frank Carlson retired to Hawaii. At present, there is no information as to the current status of his living or death.
More Posts: drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Rhea “Yank” Lawson was born May 3, 1911 in Trenton, Missouri. He started playing music on saxophones and piano before settling on the trumpet as a teenager. He played in the University of Missouri Dance Band, and was soon offered a job with Slatz Randall’s group, with whom he made his recording debut on Mom in 1932. Dropping out of college he had a stint with Wingy Manone before being hired to join Ben Pollack in late 1933.
From 1933 to 1935 Yank worked in the Pollack orchestra, then became a founding member of the Bob Crosby Orchestra. He later worked with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, but also worked with Crosby again in 1941~1942. Later in the decade he became a studio musician leading his own Dixieland sessions.
By the 1950s he and Bob Haggart created the Lawson-Haggart band and they worked together in 1968 to form the World’s Greatest Jazz Band, a Dixieland group which performed for the next ten years. He recorded for Atlantic, Audiophile, Decca and Jazzology.
Trumpeter Yank Lawson, best known for Dixieland and swing music, transitioned on February 18, 1995 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ernst Heinrich “Teddy” Stauffer was born May 2, 1909 In Murten, Fribourg, Switzerland He was dubbed Germany’s “Swing-King” of the 1930s. He formed the band known as the Teddies, which is also billed as the Original Teddies or the International Teddies, which continued after he left in 1941.
Annual trips to the Swiss cities of St. Moritz, Arosa and also a guest appearance in London, England were responsible for the international fame of the Teddies band. Until 1939, he appeared with his Original Teddies-Band especially in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany. He enjoyed his popularity at the 1936 Olympics, had hits with Goody~Goody, and turned Horst Wessel Lied, the National Socialist’s anthem, into a jazz number in 1938. With his jazzy swing music, however, Stauffer increasingly got in trouble with the Reichsmusikkammer, a Nazi institution that promoted “good German music” which was composed by Aryans and seen as consistent with Nazi ideals.
Returning to Switzerland in 1939, he eventually emigrated to the United States and then to Mexico. His reputation as a playboy and a well~known womanizer who was married to Hedy Lamar, did not sway him from also having affairs with Rita Hayworth and Barbara Hutton.
Violinist, saxophonist and bandleader Teddy Stauffer who was also an actor, nightclub owner, and restaurateur transitioned on August 27, 1991 in Acapulco, Mexico at the age of 82.
More Posts: bandleader,club owner,history,hotelier,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone,violin
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Henderson Chambers was born on May 1, 1908 in Alexandria, Louisiana and studied at Leland College and Morehouse College before joining the Neil Montgomery band in 1931. He played in Nashville with Doc Banks in 1932, then with Jack Jackson’s Pullman Porters, Speed Webb, Zack Whyte, and Al Sears in Kentucky.
After two years with Tiny Bradshaw in the middle of the Thirties, Chambers moved to New York City where he played with Chris Columbus at the Savoy Ballroom in 1939-40. Following this he played for the next three years with Louis Armstrong.
Later in the 1940s, he worked with Don Redman, Sy Oliver, Lucky Millinder, and Count Basie. By the 1950s he would spend time with Cab Calloway, Doc Cheatham, Duke Ellington, and Mercer Ellington. For a period he worked as a studio musician, however, after joining Ray Charles’s band from 1961 to 1963, Henderson played with Basie again until 1966.
He recorded seven albums with Count Basie, five with Buck Clayton and ten with Gene Ammons, Cat Anderson, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Edmond Hall, Arthur Prysock & Count Basie, Jimmy Rushing, Frank Sinatra & Count Basie, and Ernie Wilkins.
Trombonist Henderson Chambers’ final performances were with Edgar Battle, shortly before his transition from a heart attack on October 19, 1967 in New York City.
More Posts: history,instrumental,jazz,music,trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hymie Schertzer was born Herman Schertzer on April 22, 1909 in New York City, New York and began playing violin when he was nine years old. He picked up the saxophone when he was a teenager and went on to work as a sideman for Gene Kardos at the club Birdland, then joined Benny Goodman’s band, where he was the lead saxophonist until 1938, though he recorded with Goodman intermittently until the mid-1940s.
Between 1938 and 1940 Hymie was in Tommy Dorsey’s band, and recorded in the late 1930s with Bunny Berigan and Lionel Hampton. He worked with Billie Holiday in 1941 and again in 1944, then became a house musician for NBC radio and television.
Working as a session player for studio recordings Schertzer was behind Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Sy Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Artie Shaw during the years 1947-1953. He continued working with Goodman live, on television, and on record from 1951 until 1969.
Saxophonist and conductor Hymie Schertzer, who was a member of the Tonight Show Band during its Johnny Carson era, transitioned in New York City, on March 22, 1977 at the age of 67.
More Posts: conductor,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone