Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clyde Lee McCoy was born December 29, 1903 in Ashland, Kentucky to the family that feuded with the Hatfields. He began mastering the trumpet without formal instruction, after the family moved to Portsmouth, Ohio in 1912. This led him to perform regularly at church and school affairs. Five years later he was performing on the Cincinnati riverboats, and on the Mississippi River side-wheelers the Island Queen and the Bernard McSwain. He became one of the youngest musicians on the river at age 14.
In 1920, accepting an invitation for a small band to play at a Knoxville, Tennessee resort, his Chicago Orchestra rehearsed on the train and won the approval of George Whittle and the patrons of the Whittle Springs Hotel and Spa. After a two month engagement the band officially became known as the Clyde McCoy Orchestra.
In the late 1920s McCoy developed the signature “wah-wah” sound by fluttering a Harmon mute in the bell of his trumpet. In 1967, a similar effect was made for electric guitar with the introduction of the Vox Clyde McCoy Wah-Wah Pedal. Having nothing to do with the use or development of the pedal,Clyde’s name was only used for promotion.
Over the course of a seven decade career Clyde was based at various times in New York City, Los Angeles, California and Chicago, Illinois. He is best remembered for his theme song Sugar Blues, written by Clarence Williams and Lucy Fletcher, and also as a co-founder of Down Beat magazine in 1935. The song was performed with vocals by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, Fats Waller and Ella Fitzgerald.
Trumpeter and bandleader Clyde McCoy, who has a star on the Holywood Walk of Fame, transitioned on June 11, 1990 in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Louis Bartholomew was born Davis Bartholomew on December 24, 1918 in Edgard, Louisiana and initially learned to play the tuba, then took up the trumpet with lessons from Peter Davis, who also tutored Louis Armstrong. Around 1933 he moved with his parents to New Orleans, Louisiana where he played in local jazz and brass bands, including Papa Celestin’s. He played in Fats Pichon’s band on a Mississippi riverboat and took charge of his band in 1941. After a stint in Jimmie Lunceford’s band he joined the US Army during World War II and developed writing and arranging skills as a member of the 196th Army Ground Forces Band.
At the end of the war he returned to New Orleans and towards the end of 1945 he started leading his own dance band, Dave Bartholomew and the Dew Droppers, named after a now-defunct local hotel and nightclub, the Dew Drop Inn. Their popularity was a model for early rock ‘n’ roll bands the world over. In 1947, they were invited by club owner Don Robey to perform in Houston, Texas, where Bartholomew met Lew Chudd, the founder of Imperial Records.
His band made their first recordings for De Luxe Records in 1947 and their first hit was Country Boy, reached No. 14 in the national Billboard R&B chart in early 1950. Prominent members of the band, besides Bartholomew on trumpet and occasional vocals, were the saxophonists Alvin Tyler, Herb Hardesty, and Clarence Hall, the bass player Frank Fields, the guitarist Ernest McLean, the pianist Salvador Doucette, and the drummer Earl Palmer. They were later joined by the saxophonist Lee Allen.
Two years after their first meeting in Houston, Texas he was asked by Lew Chudd to become Imperial’s A&R man in New Orleans. Dave went on to produce singer Jewel King, and a young pianist Fats Domino, who went on to have great success with their collaboration. He went on to work at several labels including his own Broadmoor Records.
The 1970s and 1980s had Bartholomew leading a traditional Dixieland jazz band in New Orleans, releasing an album, Dave Bartholomew’s New Orleans Jazz Band in 1981. He produced numerous hit songs and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger and record producer Dave Bartholomew, who was prominent in the New Orleans music scene and active in rhythm and blues, big band, swing music, rock and roll, New Orleans jazz, and Dixieland, transitioned from a heart attack in Metarie, Louisiana on June 23, 2019.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Donald Bruce Roberts was born on December 4, 1917 in Melbourne, Australia and studied both clarinet and saxophone. Known to the world by his nickname Pixie, he started his music career in the 1930s.
Over the course of his career Pixie was a member of the Don Roberts’ Wolf Gang, Graeme Bell And His Australian Jazz Band, Graeme Bell And His Dixieland Jazz Band, Graeme Bell And His Orchestra, Graeme Bell’s Original Four, Pixie Roberts’ Leprechauns, Roger Bell’s Jazz Gang, The Bell-Lyttelton Jazz Nine, The Bell-Lyttelton Jazz Ten, The Bell-Lyttelton Jazz Twelve.
He was among the co-founders of the Australian jazz label Swaggie Records. Clarinetist and saxophonist Pixie Roberts transitioned on August 16, 1992 in his home city of Melbourne. He was 74.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph William Thomas was born on December 3, 1902 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His first professional gig was in his home city with trombone player Joe Harris in 1923. Soon after that, he worked with Jack Carey, Chris Kelly, and Kid Rena. He recorded with Charles Derbigny in 1941, but the recordings were not publicly released until the 1960s, by which time Thomas had become a figure in the Dixieland revival movement.
He led his own ensemble at New Orleans’s H&J Tavern for much of the 1940s, then in 1951, he became a sideman for Papa Celestin. He worked with this ensemble for years, including after Papa French and Eddie Pierson had taken over as leader.
Other associations in the 1950s and 1960s included work with Freddie Kohlman, Punch Miller, the Olympia Brass Band, and on Swedish television with Sweet Emma Barrett in 1968. In the 1970s he worked with the Legends of Jazz, replacing Joe Darensbourg.
Clarinetist and vocalist Joe Thomas, also known as Brother Cornbread and was closely associated with the New Orleans jazz scene, February 18, 1981 in New Orleans at 78.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Donaldson was born Robert Stanley Donaldson on November 29, 1922 in Boston, Massachusetts. Early in his career he played with the Boston Symphony. After playing locally in the early 1940s, he played with Russell Procope while serving in the Army in New York City.
In 1946–47 Bobby worked with Cat Anderson. Following this stint he played with Edmond Hall, Andy Kirk, Lucky Millinder, Buck Clayton, Red Norvo, and Sy Oliver/Louis Armstrong.
A prolific session musician for much of the 1950s and 1960s, he played with Helen Merrill, Ruby Braff, Mel Powell, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Bobby Jaspar, Herbie Mann, André Hodeir, Kenny Burrell, Lonnie Johnson, Frank Wess, Willis Jackson, and Johnny Hodges.
Drummer Bobby Donaldson, who played both in the jazz, Dixieland and R&B idioms, transitioned in 1971.
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