Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cecil Norman was born on September 29, 1897 in Oldham, Lancashire, United Kingdom. Considered a child prodigy, by the age of 11 he was playing concertos, at 15 he appeared at London’s Aeolian Hall. He was the son of music hall artists, billed as Olga and Otto, with his mother playing trumpet, trombone, concertina and piano.
Cecil stayed in London during World War II, with many engagements to entertain the troops, accompanying Vera Lynn as well as Inga Anderson, who sang with the George Melachrino Orchestra. After serving in World War I, he switched from classical to popular music, partly due to developing neuritis in the right hand, which forced him to give up the piano for a couple of years. Thereafter Cecil specialised in dance music, it being less likely to aggravate his condition.
He played in so many popular bands it’s hard to list them all, however in 1924 along with his alto saxophonist brother Leslie began their own band at the Savoy Hotel for tea dances and the Bekeley Hotel in the evenings. They soon moved to the Empress Rooms where they played seven days a week plus tea dances. At times, either he or his brother were in charge and arranging for the Savoy Plaza Band and Savoy Dance Band. In 1927, the Norman Brothers Band moved to Carlton Hotel. In 1928, Cecil went to America and had Rudy Vallee introduce him around, including to Bert Lown, whom he joined in New York.
Moving back to London in 1929, Cecil played and recorded with Fred Elizalde Band in 1930 before moving to Jerry Hoey’s band and Melville Gideon’s band in 1931. He went on to join several other bands in London and Australia, including the BBC Dance Orchestra. He stayed in London during World War II, with many engagements to entertain the troops, accompanying Vera Lynn as well as Inga Anderson, who sang with the George Melachrino Orchestra.
After the war, Norman formed the Rhythm Players that became the cornerstone of the BBC’s Music While You Work program in the 1950’s. Over the course of his career he composed several instrumental numbers. He retired in 1962 when he was 65 after suffering an accident. He returned one last time for a 15-minute spot in 1970, ending his more than sixty years in music.
Dance pianist & composer Cecil Norman, who used the pseudonym Norman Sissel for some Norman Sissel And His Rhythm Twisters recordings, died February 8, 1988 aged 91 in East Sussex, England.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Guido Basso was born on September 27, 1937 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He grew up in the Little Italy neighbourhood of Montreal, in an Italian-Canadian family. He began playing the trumpet at the age of nine and studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal.
His professional music career started in his teens, under the name Stubby Basso. During his early twenties he performed regularly at the El Morocco in Montreal, and played in bands led by Maury Kaye. Singer Vic Damone discovered Basso playing at El Morocco, then included him on a tour from 1957 to 1958.
He had a professional career as a composer, conductor, arranger, trumpeter, flugelhornist, and harmonica player. In 1958, Guido joined singer Pearl Bailey and her husband, drummer Louis Bellson, touring North America with them and their orchestra. Returning to Canada Guido settled in Toronto, Canada in 1961, during that time he studied at The Royal Conservatory of Music.
In 1963, he became music director for CBLT’s Nightcap, a tv station job he held for four years, then on to music director for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He organized and led big band concerts featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Basso was a charter member of Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass, playing with the band for over twenty years and also played in big bands led by Ron Collier, and Phil Nimmons.
Trumpeter, flugelhornist, arranger, composer, and conductor Guido Basso, who won two Juno awards, was a member of the Order of Canada, died in Toronto, Canada on February 13, 2023, at age 85.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Fowler Singleton Jr. was born on September 17, 1913 in Jacksonville, Florida. He attended several schools in and around the city and graduated from Stanton High School in 1935. Always interested in singing and dancing, by the time he left school he had become a proficient songwriter. He also produced shows and was responsible for several musical extravaganzas, including April Frolics, which was staged at a nightspot in LaVilla in Jacksonville. Singleton continued to work in Jacksonville into the 1940s.
The early 1950s Singleton moved to New York City and presented his lyrics to Decca Records, who signed him up as a songwriter. By 1954, he had teamed up with Rose Marie McCoy, and the pair went on to write successful hits for Joe Turner, Faye Adams and Ruth Brown. In 1956, Singleton and McCoy, as Charlie and Rosie, recorded a single together on RCA Victor.
Singleton went on to write songs for Pat Boone, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, B. B. King, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Wayne Newton and Andy Williams. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Singleton largely wrote songs without a writing partner, and also recorded an album, The Big Twist Hits, released in 1962 and credited to the Charlie “Hoss” Singleton Combo.
When the song Beddy Bye by Bert Kaempfert came to Frank Sinatra through his producer Jimmy Bowen, he asked the composer to tune it into a song. Bert engaged Singleton wrote the lyrics and Eddie Snyder adapted the music for what became Strangers in the Night and the song became a #1 hit for Sinatra.
He and Snyder had also reworked another Kaempfert instrumental called “Moon Over Naples” into the song Spanish Eyes. Composer and lyricist Charles Singleton, who was known as Hoss, and who also produced several platinum albums, died on December 12, 1985 in his home city.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Carcassés was born on August 29, 1938 in Kingston Jamaica where his Cuban grandfather worked as a diplomat. Upon moving to Villa Clara, Cuba at the age of four he grew up surrounded by Cuban rhythms, listening to Benny Moré, Conjunto Casino & Roberto Faz. He acquired a love for an eclectic spectrum of music from the opera star Enrico Carusso and Mexico’s Jorge Negrete to jazz royalty Sarah Vaughan, Buddy Rich and Stan Getz.
By the 1950’s he was involved with some of the best vocal quartets in Cuba and while playing for many years at The Tropicana the center of Cuban Jazz, he began to experiment with bebop and scat vocals. During the Sixties he traveled to Europe, spending a year in Paris where he played with Kenny Clarke and Bud Powell.
Returning to Cuba he worked in the Teatro Musical where he met three of the future founders of Irakere: Chucho Valdes, Carlos Emilio Morales and Paquito D’ Rivera. Over the next ten years he played in the best night clubs in Havana, Cuba as well as acting in Cuban cinema, Tv and essentially starting to form his own Jazz group.
In 1980 he organized the first Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana, inviting Dizzy Gillespie, Ronnie Scott, Charlie Haden, Airto Moreira, Tania Maria, Steve Coleman and many others. After his own group played these festivals. he traveled to Canada, England, France and the USA where he performed with Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Patato Valdés and many others on the Latin Jazz scene.
Trumpeter Bobby Carcassés, who also plays piano, bass, percussion, and flugelhorn, as well as writing his own pieces, continues to perform, record and create art that has been exhibited globally.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Patrick Dease was born August 25, 1982 in Augusta, Georgia. He attended John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet High School where he studied saxophone and voice. He achieved all-state vocal honors for three consecutive years.
At 17 Michael taught himself to play trombone and was soon invited to join the inaugural class of the Juilliard jazz studies program by Wycliffe Gordon. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees while at the school. While at Juilliard he won many awards, including the Frank Rosolino Award, J.J. Johnson Award, the Sammy Nestico Jazz Composers Award, ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, and the Fish Middleton Jazz Competition.[2]
He began his career in Illinois Jacquet’s Big Band in 2002, and has performed as a featured member of the big bands of Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton, Jimmy Heath, Charles Tolliver and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars. He also performs with small groups led by Claudio Roditi, Rodney Whitaker, Wycliffe Gordon, and David Sanborn. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America. In addition to performance, Dease serves as president and producer at his jazz record label, D Clef Records.
Dease conducts master classes and workshops at universities and conservatories around the world, holds the position of Associate Professor of Jazz Trombone at the Michigan State University College of Music. He has held similar positions at Queens College, CUNY, and The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.
Tenor and bass trombonist, composer, producer and educator Michael Dease continues to perform, compose, record and educate.
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