Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chuck Hedges was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 21, 1932 and began playing clarinet while attending a military school. He received formal training under Claude Bordy and learned to play jazz on his own.
After studying at Northwestern University, Chuck joined George Brunis’s ensemble in 1953, remaining with Brunis through the end of the decade. He was active on the Dixieland revival scene in the 1960s, playing regularly at clubs in Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin into the 1990s.
Working with Wild Bill Davison for most of the 1980s, he also worked with Alan Vaché and Johnny Varro. He with Ray Leatherwood, Gene Estes, Eddie Higgins, Bob Haggart, Duane Thamm, John Bany, Dave Baney, Charles Braugham, Howard Elkins, Jack Wyatt, Jim Vaughn, John Sheridan, Henry “Bucky” Buckwalter, Gary Meisner, Dave Sullivan, Mike Britz, and Andy LoDuca.
Clarinetist Chuck Hedges released several albums as a leader in the 1990s and 2000s before passing away on June 24, 2010.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dick Cary was born in Hartford, Connecticut on July 10, 1916 and earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Wesleyan University in 1938. He began performing in Connecticut and New York and landed a two-year full-time solo gig at Nick’s in Greenwich Village in New York City in 1941. The early 1940s saw him playing with Joe Marsala, the Casa Loma Orchestra, Brad Gowans, and as a staff arranger for Benny Goodman.
During a stint in the Army in 1944-46 while stationed on Long Island, Cary managed to continue recording with Muggsy Spanier and Wild Bill Davison among others. After his discharge, he worked with Billy Butterfield, then the pianist in the initial formation of Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars in 1947–48. In 1949–50 he was in Jimmy Dorsey’s orchestra, and throughout the 1950s worked with Eddie Condon, Pee Wee Russell, Max Kaminsky, Bud Freeman, Jimmy McPartland, and Bobby Hackett.
A move to Los Angeles, California in 1959 saw him becoming an active freelance, touring, and studio musician. Dick began writing and arranging music for the Tuesday Night Friends, who only performed annually at the Los Angeles Classic Jazz Festival and Sacramento Jazz Jubilee.
Trumpeter, composer, and arranger Dick Cary, who recorded eight albums asa leader and two-dozen as a sideman, passed away on April 6, 1994 in Glendale, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alex Welsh was born on July 9, 1929 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Welsh and started playing in the teenage Leith Silver Band and with Archie Semple’s Capital Jazz Band. After a move to London in the early 1950s, he formed a band with clarinetist Archie Semple, pianist Fred Hunt, trombonist Roy Crimmins, and drummer Lenny Hastings. The band played a version of Chicago-style Dixieland jazz and was part of the traditional jazz revival in England in the 1950s.
In the 1960s, Welsh’s band played with Earl Hines, Red Allen, Peanuts Hucko, Pee Wee Russell, and Ruby Braff. During that period and into the early 1970s, Welsh frequently toured, including many visits to the United States. Influenced by his fellow trad jazz bandleader Chris Barber, he built up an extensive musical repertoire, working from popular music, jazz, and a large mainstream following for ensembles.
Welsh recorded under the Decca Record label from 1955 and had four records released that year, I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise, Blues My Naughtie Sweetie Gives To Me, and What Can I Say After I Say I’m Sorry, and Dixielanders. Although none of these recordings charted, he found some success with the single Tansy from the film No My Darling Daughter.
In 1963 he was part of the biggest trad jazz event in Britain and would go on to tour internationally, playing festivals on both the American and European continents. He was a regular in the early 1970s, playing clubs around London and having continued success as a vocalist and playing Dixieland, and trad jazz. Singer, bandleader, cornetist, and trumpeter Alex Welsh passed away on June 25, 1982 in Hillingdon Hospital in London, England, at the age of 52.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gene Sedric, born Eugene Hall Cedric on June 17, 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri into a family where his father played ragtime piano. He played with Charlie Creath in his hometown and then with Fate Marable, Dewey Jackson, Ed Allen, and Julian Arthur.
Joining Sam Wooding’s Orchestra in 1925 he toured Europe with him until 1931 when the unit dissolved. During his time in Europe he recorded with Alex Hyde. When he returned to New York City he played with Fletcher Henderson and Alex Hill, before joining Fats Waller’s Rhythm in 1934, where he remained to 1942. When Waller went on solo tours Sedric found work gigging alongside Mezz Mezzrow in 1937 and Don Redman from 1938 to 1939).
Sedric put together his own group in 1943, prior to playing with Phil Moore in 1944 and Hazel Scott in 1945. He put together another ensemble from 1946–51, playing in New York City. His later associations through the late 1940s into the early 60s include time with Pat Flowers, Bobby Hackett, Jimmy McPartland, Mezzrow again, Conrad Janis, and Dick Wellstood. He recorded sparingly as a leader in 1938, 1946, and with Mezzrow in 1953.
Clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Gene Sedric, who acquired the nickname “Honey Bear” in the 1930s because of his large camel hair coat, passed away on April 3, 1963 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paul Mares was born on June 15, 1900 in New Orleans, Louisiana and was self-taught on the cornet and trumpet and picked up his early experience laying the riverboat Capitol playing with the Tom Brown Band. Leaving his hometown in 1919 he moved to Chicago, Illinois and worked with Ragbaby Stevens before freelancing around the city.
In 1921 Paul formed the Friars Society Orchestra, a group that prominently featured trombonist George Brunies and clarinetist Leon Rappolo. From 1922-23, the band recorded for Gennett Records and became one of the best-regarded bands in the city. The band, which broke up in 1924, included up-and-coming jazz musicians, including the members of the Austin High School Gang and Bix Beiderbecke.
Mares who was influenced by King Oliver, played in New York for a short time, went back to New Orleans the following year and led a couple more sessions. In 1934, a move to Chicago the following year had him making a brief comeback and leading a recording session that resulted in four titles before he retired again.
By 1935 Mares he was playing trumpet and fronting a recording session with his band called Paul Mares and his Friars Society Orchestra. The name referred to the Friar’s Inn club where the Rhythm Kings had first played in Chicago. The 1935 band included the white New Orleanian and N.O.R.K. veteran Santo Pecora on trombone, the black New Orleanian Omar Simeon on clarinet and the Chicagoan altoist Boyce Brown, as well as George Wettling on drums, pianist Jess Stacey, bassist Pat Pattison, and guitarist Marvin Saxbe.
He then largely retired from playing to work in the family fur business, and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings passed into history. He ran a barbeque restaurant, did defense plant work during World War II, and returned to music in 1945, leading a final band from 1945-48 that unfortunately never recorded. Cornetist and trumpeter Paul Mares passed away on August 18, 1949 in Chicago.
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