Daily Dose Of Jazz…

James Edward Davis was born in 1915 in Madison, Georgia. He and his family moved to Gary, Illinois, and then to Englewood, New Jersey, where he completed his high school education. Being musically gifted, he was accepted into the Juilliard School in New York City to study piano and composition, his fees being paid by a benefactress.

In the late 1930s he wrote the song Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) with Ram Ramirez but could not initially place it, until he offered it to Billie Holiday in 1942. However, due to the 1942–44 musicians’ strike Holiday didn’t record the song until 1944. Although at first it was only a minor hit, it soon achieved widespread success and went on to become a jazz standard.

During the early 1940s Davis struggled to make a living as a songwriter and supplemented his meagre royalties by giving piano lessons. Drafted in 1942, but as a member of the NAACP, refused enlistment into the segregated regiment, was ultimately imprisoned for thirteen days, then inducted into the army, serving three and a half years. By 1945, as a warrant officer, he was sent to France for six months, and learned the language. Back home, upon his discharge he left for Hollywood, joined the Actors’ Laboratory Theatre, however his acting career only offered stereotypical racial roles. At the end of 1947 he emigrated to France.

Warmly welcomed in Paris, in part, due to the fame of the song Lover Man, he styled himself Jimmy “Lover Man” Davis and entered a highly creative period, writing a number of songs and placing them with major French performers, such as Yves Montand, Maurice Chevalier, and Joséphine Baker. His songwriting royalties were still insufficient to live on, so he began singing his own songs in solo performances, touring through France, Italy, Holland, Spain, Switzerland and other countries.

Composer, songwriter, vocalist, pianist and actor Jimmy Davis, whose birth and death dates are currently unknown, and who was a close friend of Langston Hughes, transitioned in Paris, France in 1997. His biography, In Search of Jimmy ‘Lover Man’ Davis, was written by Professor François Grosjean.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Marc McDonald was born in London, England on  February 8, 1961 and lived there for six years before his parents moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where he grew up. Since the 1980s he has led groups in the New York City metropolitan areas as well as Honolulu, London and Athens. Releasing his debut CD as a leader, It Doesn’t End Here, it features his own compositions and the inventive arrangements of standards, drawing from mainstream jazz, Brazilian, and New Orleans R&B  influences.

He has been equally active as a sideman and has been a member of award-winning composer Jamie Begian’s big band since 1998, appearing as a featured soloist on the band’s CD Trance.

In 1990, McDonald was among ten jazz composers invited to the ASCAP/Louis Armstrong Jazz Composers Workshop at New York’s Lincoln Center. Always the student, he attended the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop in New York for several years. Between 1991 and 1996 he was invited to premiere works for jazz chamber ensemble, solo saxophone, and saxophone quartet.

As an educator he has held a position for five years as a member of the artist faculty at a private music school in Princeton, and is currently in private teaching practice. Saxophonist and composer Marc McDonald continues to explore the world of jazz.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Haven Gillespie was born James Lamont Gillespie on February 6, 1888 in Covington, Kentucky, one of nine children of Anna (Reilley and William F. Gillespie. The family was poor and he dropped out of school in grade four to unsuccessfully find a job. His older sister, Lillian, who had married a printer in Chicago, Illinois offered him a job and in 1902 left home for the bustling city life.

A few years later, corresponding with a childhood sweetheart back in Covington, a forthcoming proposal led to marriage in 1909. With sixteen dollarsbetween the two of them, Gillespie soon landed a job as a typesetter for the Cincinnati Times-Star, ultimately maintaining his membership in the International Typographic Union until his death. He found work as a “plug” man, entertaining audiences at local vaudeville shows by playing and singing songs he had written.

His first break came in 1911 when he met Roy Steventon, performing with Mildred Lovejoy in a dancing act and teaming up they composed three songs for the act, You’re Just The Girl I’ve Met In My Dreams, When I Am Gone, and Winter Time Is Coming Around Too Soon. Though Haven was paid one and a half cents for each piece of sheet music sold, royalties only amounted to a few dollars over the next several years.

While touring to promote his songwriting, Gillespie began drinking heavily and would struggle with alcohol addiction most of his life. At age 23 and after a long night of drinking, he met Joe Ford, a printer with the Cincinnati Tribune. Ford took Haven home to sober up and the two men eventually developed a lifelong friendship.

Gillespie’s first major hit came in early 1925 with Drifting and Dreaming. He left for New York and became a journalist and composer of songs for vaudeville shows. He first gained notice in 1925 with collaborators Egbert Van Alstyne, Ervin R. Schmidt, and Loyal Curtis on Breezin Along With The Breeze, which was recorded by Josephine Baker, among numerous others.

He successfully collaborated with J. Fred Coots, Mitchell Parish, Henry Marshall, Henry and Charles Tobias, Neil Moret, Peter DeRose, Victor Young, Jack Little, Richard Whiting, Rudy Vallée, and Beasley Smith, to name a few. His Louisiana Fairy Tale, recorded by Fats Waller, was used as the first theme song in the PBS Production of This Old House.

Tin Pan Alley composer and lyricist Haven Gillespie, whose songs You Go To My Head, Beautiful Love and Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town have become jazz standards, transitioned on March 14, 1975 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Leslie Bricusse was born on January 29, 1931 in Pinner, Middlesex, England. He was educated at University College School in London, England and then at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, he was Secretary then President of Footlights and during his college drama career he began working for actress, singer and comedian Beatrice Lillie.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Bricusse enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Anthony Newley. They wrote the musical Stop the World – I Want to Get Off  in 1961,that became a film in 1966. In 1965 they wrote the show The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd and music for the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in 1971. For the latter, they received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song Score.

Solely as a lyricist, Leslie collaborated with composer Cyril Ornadel on Pickwick, Henry Mancini on Victor/Victoria, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, and with John Williams on Hook. As composer and lyricist he scored the film, Doctor Dolittle and received a 1967 Academy Award for Best Original Song for Talk To The Animals, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips in 1969.

Of his many songs a few that have become jazz standards are What Kind of Fool Am I?, Who Can I Turn To?, Feeling Good, My Kind of Girl, Two For The Road, If I Ruled the World, Can You Read My Mind, When I Look in Your Eyes, and Pure Imagination. 

In 2015, he released his memoir, Pure Imagination: A Sorta-Biography, with a foreword by Elton John. Composer, lyricist, and playwright Leslie Bricusse, who was awarded the Order of the British Empire, transitioned on October 19, 2021 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France at the age of 90.

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