Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Barnes was born in Manchester, England on May 15, 1932. He started out his career as a flügelhorn player in the early 1950s, and adapted his playing skills to the clarinet, an instrument he favored. He played traditional jazz with Alan Elsdon, The Mike Daniels’ Delta Jazzmen and also The Zenith Six.
In May 1964, after a bad car crash Barnes was replaced by Al Gay, until his full rehabilitation as a member of Alex Welsh band. He continued and extended his career musically from 1967 with the Scottish dixieland jazz trumpet and cornet player Alex Welsh and his Jazz Band, which lasted ten years until 1977.
He began playing alto, baritone, soprano saxophone and the flute. During this period he rose to fame in the jazz arena appearing at the Newport Jazz Festival aged 37 in 1969. His skills on baritone saxophone earned him a huge jazz fan base, some suggesting he was the best they had seen in Europe. After leaving Welsh, Barnes worked as co-leader, with trombonist Roy Williams of the Midnite Follies Orchestra, which included many American jazz artists.
John worked with Janet Jackson, Leo Sayer, Humphrey Lyttelton, Gerry Mulligan, Spike Robinson, Bobby Wellins and Keith Nichols. He considered Coleman Hawkins and Johnny Hodges to be his two main saxophone influences throughout his career.
In 2011, while on holiday in Greece, Barnes suffered a stroke. As a result of his stroke, a benefit concert was held for him the following year at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, London.
Saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist John Barnes died on April 18, 2022 at the age of 89.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jim Douglas was born Robert James Elliot Douglas on May 13, 1942 in Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland. He played drums in his youth before switching to guitar and in his teens he accompanied clarinettist Pete Kerr.
As part of a Dixieland band, he performed in Germany in 1960 and soon after Jim began playing with Alex Welsh. In 1971 he appeared on the album Freddy Randall and His Famous Jazz Band. Other than Kerr and Welsh, he worked with Alan Elsdon, Lennie Hastings, Ed Polcer, and Keith Smith.
Douglas wrote and self-published a semi-autobiographical book, Tunes, Tours and Travel-itis – Eighteen Years of Facts, Faces and Fun with the Alex Welsh Band. He followed this up three years later with Teenage to Travel-itis – Growing Up in a World of Jazz. The sequel chronicles his adventures in the Jazz world before and after his time with the Alex Welsh Band.
Guitarist, banjoist, and author Jim Douglas, who played with Red Allen, Earl Hines, and Ruby Braff from 1962 until 1981 while in the Welsh band, continues to perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Avery “Kid“ Howard was born on April 22, 1908 in New Orleans, Louisiana and began on drums at about age fourteen, but switched to cornet and then trumpet after playing with Chris Kelly.
In 1920s New Orleans, Howard played with the Eureka Brass Band, Allen’s Brass Band, and the Tuxedo Brass Band. He led his own bands late in the 1920s and early in the 1930s and it was his band which played at the jazz funeral for Buddy Petit. He played in the Palace Theatre pit orchestra from 1938 to 1943.
In 1943, he recorded with George Lewis, considered to be among his best recordings. In 1946, he led the Original Zenith Brass Band, but played only locally for the next few years. 1952 saw the trumpeter returning to playing with Lewis, where he would remain until 1961. Kid’s later recordings with Lewis are uneven because of his battle with alcoholism, which interfered with his abilities as a soloist.
Howard fell ill in 1961 and left Lewis’s band, and upon his recovery he led his own band from 1961 to 1965, and recorded sessions, several of them highly praised.
Trumpeter and bandleader Kid Howard, who was a mainstay on the New Orleans jazz scene, continued to play in New Orleans at Preservation Hall and other venues up until his death of a brain hemorrhage on March 28, 1966 in his hometown.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Theodore Gerald Roy, born April 9, 1905 in Du Quoin, Illinois began his musical career playing cornet before switching to piano. He first played in the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra, and then with Jean Goldkette and Frankie Trumbauer early in his career.
While in Boston, Massachusetts in 1933 he played with Bobby Hackett and Pee Wee Russell, then led his own band around the state in 1934. Following this, he worked in various dance bands in New York City in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Serving in the Army from 1943 to 1945, Teddy went on to play with Max Kaminsky and the new version of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band with Eddie Edwards and Wild Bill Davison. From 1946 to 1959, he played mostly freelance in New York City and on Long Island, New York. Among those he played with were Russell, Kaminsky, Miff Mole, and Wingy Manone. He also did solo work in the 1950s.
Pianist Teddy Roy died on August 31, 1966 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Hubble was born John Edgar Hubble II on April 6, 1928 in Santa Barbara, California and learned trombone from his father, who was also a professional trombonist in the Los Angeles, California area.
A move to New York City in 1944 and by late in the decade had played with Bob Wilber, Buddy Rich, Doc Evans, Alvino Rey, and Eddie Condon. He played with his own ensemble from the late 1940s, recording for Savoy Records in 1952.
He played with a Dixieland jazz ensemble known as The Six in 1953, and worked with Muggsy Spanier in the 1960s, playing in Ohio and Connecticut. He also worked with the World’s Greatest Jazz Band.
Despite being seriously injured in a car crash in 1979, he was soon back playing, including for international tours.
Trombonist Eddie Hubble died on March 22, 2016, at the age of 91.
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