Daily Dose Of Jazz…
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.
More Posts: arranger,clarinet,composer,harp,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenneth John Moule was born on June 26, 1925 in Barking, Essex, England and was the only child of Frederick and Ethal Moule. Surviving an early childhood illness, left him with a cadaverous look which went well with his ridiculous sense of humor.
In the Forties Moule played piano with the Johnny Dankworth Quartet before leaving to join Oscar Rabin in 1945. He would go on to perform with Remo Cavalotti for a summer season and Joe Daniels before working on the Queen Mary in Bobby Kevin’s Band, with Ronnie Scott and Johnny Dankworth. He closed out the decade working with several bands including Jiver Hutchinson, Bert Ambrose, Frank Weir and Ken Mackintosh.
During the early 1950s Ken worked with Raymonde’s Orchestra, again with Ambrose and then with Frank Weir on several occasions. 1954 saw him form under his own name a septet, which was comprised of two-tenor, baritone, trumpet and three rhythm group. He resigned from the septet in 1955 and from 1956–1959 he arranged for Ted Heath’s orchestra. During this time he composed the suite Jazz at Toad Hall, and was released on Decca Records in 1958. He worked in Sweden and toured Europe with Kurt Weill’s Band until 1960.
The 1960s saw his return to England and worked freelance as an arranger, especially with Lionel Bart. He was the musical director for the shows Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be and Twang!!. From 1962 he broadcast regularly with his 15 piece orchestra, and later broadcasted and recorded with a larger band called The Full Score. His Adam’s Rib Suite was recorded by the London Jazz Chamber Group in 1970 with Kenny Wheeler on the recording issued on Ember Records.
He scored Cole Porter songs for the musical Cole! performed at the Mermaid Theatre in 1974, and worked with Dankworth again around that time with his London Symphony Orchestra collaborations. He worked out of Germany for part of the 1970s before ill health caused him to move to the warmer climate of Spain.
Pianist, composer and arranger Ken Moule transitioned in Marbella in January 27, 1986, aged 60.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jerry “Buck” Jerome was born on June 19, 1912 in Brooklyn, New York and he didn’t begin playing the saxophone until he was in high school in Plainfield, New Jersey.
Jerome became part of a national tour in 1936 with bandleader Harry Reser and his Clicquot Club Eskimos. He joined Glenn Miller’s original orchestra in 1937 and was a member until it broke up in 1938. He played and soloed on the Glenn Miller recording Doin’ the Jive. He then joined the Red Norvo band which was followed by his joining the Benny Goodman orchestra in 1938.
When Goodman broke up his band in 1940, he joined the Artie Shaw Orchestra. While with Shaw he appeared the same year he joind the band in the film Second Chorus, starring Fred Astaire and Burgess Meredith. By the end of the 1940s, Jerry became involved in broadcasting, working various positions as a conductor, composer, arranger and musical director.
Tenor saxophonist Jerry Jerome, who composed the Winston tastes good like a cigarette should jingle for the tobacco company, transitioned on November 17, 2001 at the age of 89.
More Posts: history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ladislav Déczi was born on March 29, 1938 in Bernolákovo, Czechoslovakia and showed an interest in the trumpet while in elementary school. He went through several music ensembles in high school and during his military service performed in Prague, Czechoslovakia. After his discharge he remained in Prague and started performing with the Rokoko Theater Sextet and then with the Jazz Outsiders. He then went on to work with Karel Velebny’s S+HQ and as the frontman for the Reduta Quartet.
By the mid-Sixties he founded Jazz Celulla, joined the Czechoslovak All Star Band, the Jazz Orchestra of the Czechoslovak Radio, and the Dance Orchestra of the Czechoslovak Radio. He recorded several solo albums, composed orchestral compositions.
Emigrating to America in 1986 he again took the frontman space for Celula New York. He performed with Elvin Jones, Bill Watrous, Junior Cook, Dave Weckl and Sonny Costanzo. He recorded several duo albums with Sarka Dvorak and composed an abundance of music for film and television productions. He has won several awards during his career and has toured Eastern Europe especially his homeland, Germany and Austria.
Trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Laco Déczi, who also paints, continues to perform, compose and record.
More Posts: composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Johnny Hawksworth was born in London, England on February 2, 1924 and initially trained as a pianist, but also played double bass in the Ted Heath Orchestra during the early 1950s and through the 1960s. Becoming one of the most popular jazz bassists in the UK, he won numerous polls and was often featured as a soloist on Heath concerts and recordings.
As a composer Johnny wrote many television themes including Salute to Thames, Thank Your Lucky Stars, Roobarb, Man About the House and George and Mildred. He contributed some of the incidental music used in the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, and his composition, Er Indoors, was frequently used in SpongeBob SquarePants. While working on films, he scored The Naked World of Harrison Marks, The Penthouse, and Zeta One.
Hawksworth has also written many pieces of stock music for the De Wolfe Music library. He also provided the hypnotic musical soundtrack to Geoffrey Jones’s classic British Transport Films Snow and has composed American-style blues-based material under the name Bunny J. Browne and classically-based material under the name John Steinway.
Bassist and composer Johnny Hawksworth transitioned on February 13, 2009 in Sydney, Australia at the age of 85.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music