Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Theodore Salvatore Fiorito, known professionally as Ted Fio Rito, was born December 20, 1900 in Newark, New Jersey into an Italian immigrant couple. His mother had sung light opera in Italy. He attended Barringer High School in Newark.
He was still in his teens when he landed a job in 1919 as a pianist at Columbia’s New York City recording studio, working with the Harry Yerkes bands: the Yerkes Novelty Five, Yerkes’ Jazarimba Orchestra and The Happy Six.
His earliest compositions were recorded by the Yerkes groups and Art Highman’s band. Fio Rito had numerous hit recordings, notably his two number one hits, My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii and I’ll String Along with You. Over the course of his life he composed more than 100 songs, collaborating with such lyricists as Ernie Erdman, Gus Kahn, Sam Lewis, Cecil Mack, Albert Von Tilzer, and Joe Young.
Moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1921 he joined the Dan Russo band and the following year became the co-leader of Russo and Fio Rito’s Oriole Orchestra and opened at Detroit, Michigan’s Oriole Terrace, with a rebranding as the Oriole Terrace Orchestra. Returning to Chicago they did their first radio remote broadcast in 1924. Throughout the 1920s the orchestra played Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cincinnati and San Francisco.
The Fio Rito Orchestra’s vocalists included Jimmy Baxter, Candy Candido, the Debutantes, Betty Grable, June Haver, the Mahoney Sisters, Muzzy Marcellino, Joy Lane, Billy Murray, Maureen O’Connor, Patti Palmer, Kay and Ward Swingle.
During the 1940s, the band’s popularity diminished, but Fio Rito continued to perform in Chicago and Arizona. He played in Las Vegas, Nevada during the 1960s. In his last years, he led a small combo at venues throughout California and Nevada until his death.
Composer, orchestra leader, and keyboardist Ted Fio Rito, who was popular on national radio broadcasts in the 1920s and 1930s, died from a heart attack on July 22, 1971 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill McGuffie was born on December 11, 1927 in Carmyle near Glasgow, Scotland. After three years studying the piano he had an accident as a child which caused the loss of his second finger of his right hand, but despite the accident he started playing again and modified his technique. By the time he turned eleven he was awarded the Victoria Medal for his piano proficiency by the Victoria College, Glasgow.
Finding it difficult he decided to stop playing until friends and colleagues suggested playing dance music. Towards the end of World War II when he was 17, he moved to London and began a career in 1946 playing in the Teddy Foster Orchestra at the Lyceum.
Working with other top bands followed until 1952 when he got his big break when the BBC formed their own show band run by Cyril Stapleton. McGuffie was a featured artist with a big public following, which led to a recording contract and he was voted in top place in the Melody Maker readers’ poll from 1953 to 1955. This led to him appearing in the early Esquire jazz poll winners records and recorded with trumpeter Kenny Baker’s Dozen.
He made a limited number of records which were jazz tinged and a big band record. Bigger success came with his light music and his albums with strings. Noted for his great musicianship and his impeccable good taste, his jazz records with the Kenny Baker Dozen and one track from the Melody Maker’s All-Stars are available. He also recorded albums with no jazz content, and worked extensively with bandleader Joe Loss, where he was featured.
He won an Ivor Novello Award in 1960 for his composition Sweet September, a Song Writers’ Guild Badge of Merit, and the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors Gold Badge of Merit.
Pianist Bill McGuffie, who went on to be a film composer and conductor, and with the onset of cancer, died on March 22, 1987 at the age of 59.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Terry Plumeri was born John Terryl Plumeri on November 28, 1944 in Greensboro, North Carolina, and grew up in Tampa, Florida. He began studying music when he was 10 and while attending Chamberlain High School, he was introduced to the double bass by band director Robert Price. He went on to attend the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, studying with Robert Brennand, then the principal bassist in the New York Philharmonic. Later, he studied composition and conducting with Antal Doráti.
During his military service, Terry was a member of the Air Force Band. After his discharge he played with among others John Abercrombie, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, Woody Herman, Quincy Jones, Yusef Lateef, Les McCann, Wayne Shorter, Frank Sinatra, Ralph Towner, and Joe Williams.
He performed, toured, and recorded with Roberta Flack from 1969 to 1974, playing electric and acoustic bass. He appears on the albums Chapter Two, Quiet Fire, Killing Me Softly, and wrote the song Conversation Love on the latter album.
Moving to Los Angeles, California to work in the film industry, Terry wrote the music for over 50 feature films, and his score for the film One False Move was nominated for Best Score by the IFC Independent Spirit Awards. In later years, he was guest conductor for the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and was a frequent guest lecturer, teacher, music producer, and photographer.
Double bassist, classical and film score composer, orchestra conductor, lecturer, teacher, and producer, and composer Terry Plumeri was murdered by burglars during a home invasion on March 31, 2016 in Dunnellon, Florida. He was 71.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Barry was born John Barry Prendergast in York, England on November 3, 1933 the youngest of four children, his mother, a classical pianist, his father a projectionist. Raised in and around cinemas, this childhood background influenced his musical tastes and interests. He was educated at St. Peter’s School, York, and received composition lessons from Francis Jackson, Organist of York Minster.
Spending his national service in the British Army playing the trumpet and working from a correspondence course with jazz composer Bill Russo, after his service he worked as an arranger for the orchestras of Jack Parnell and Ted Heath. Forming his own band, the John Barry Seven, in 1957, they recorded hit records on EMI’s Columbia label. By 1959 he gained commissions to arrange music for other acts, and his career breakthrough was the BBC television series Drumbeat, when he appeared with the John Barry Seven.
He was employed by EMI from 1959 until 1962 arranging orchestral accompaniments for the company’s singers. He began composing songs and scores for films and when Adam Faith made his first film, Beat Girl in 1960, Barry composed, arranged and conducted the film score, his first. His music was later released as the UK’s first soundtrack album. His composition and orchestration caught the attention of the Bond producers and he went on to have an accomplished career as a composer and arranger with the series.
In 2001, the University of York conferred an honorary degree on Barry, and in 2002 he was named an Honorary Freeman of the City of York. Fiancial issues in Britain forced him to emigrate to the United States where he lived for many years mainly in Oyster Bay, New York, in Centre Island on Long Island
He suffered a rupture of the esophagus in 1988, following a toxic reaction to a health tonic he had consumed. The incident rendered him unable to work for two years and left him vulnerable to pneumonia.
Composer, arranger and conductor John Barry, who won five Academy Awards and four Grammy Awards with scores for Born Free, The Lion in Winter, Midnight Cowboy and Somewhere in Time, died of a heart attack on January 30, 2011 at his Oyster Bay home, aged 77.
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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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