Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edwin Branford “Eddie” Edwards was born on May 22, 1891 in New Orleans, Louisiana and started on violin at age 10 and five years later he picked up the trombone. In 1916, he was chosen to go to Chicago, Illinois by Alcide Nunez to play trombone with Johnny Stein’s Jazz Band. With a few changes of personnel, this band became the Original Dixieland Jass Band, which made the first jazz records in 1917. He played on one of the first commercially released jazz recordings, Livery Stable Blues, later released as Barnyard Blues.
Leaving the band after being drafted into the United States Army, he served from July 1918 to March 1919. After being discharged, Eddie led his own band and worked in Jimmy Durante’s band before returning to the Original Dixieland Jass Band. After that band broke up, he again led a band in New York City for most of the 1920s until retiring from music in the early Thirties. He then ran a newspaper stand and worked as a sports coach.
Coming out of retirement he returned to music in 1936 when Nick LaRocca reformed the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, playing with them until 1938. He played in other bands with Larry Shields, Tony Sbarbaro, and J. Russell Robinson in New York City into the 1940s. He continued playing professionally intermittently until shortly before his death.
His composition Sensation Rag or Sensation was performed at the 1938 Benny Goodman jazz concert at Carnegie Hall and was included on the album The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert. Darktown Strutters’ Ball, composed by Shelton Brooks, a Black man, was recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2006.
Trombonist Eddie Edwards, who played both violin and trombone, and who also played minor-league baseball and worked as an electrician, transitioned on April 9, 1963 in his hometown at the age of 71.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Terence Lightfoot was born on May 21, 1935 in Potters Bar, Middlesex, England. He started his musical career as a vocalist during early school life, singing popular songs with a small amateur variety group. In 1949, he came to jazz while at Enfield Grammar School in Enfield Town, London, England. He changed from playing the trumpet to clarinet to meet the needs of the traditional Dixieland jazz band of his friends. After leaving school, he formed his first jazz band, the Wood Green Stompers.
In 1955 he formed the band Terry Lightfoot’s New Orleans Jazzmen. In the Sixties they had three minor hits in the UK Singles Chart in 1961 and 1962, True Love, King Kong and Tavern in the Town. The group made regular Sunday night appearances at the Wood Green Jazz Club.
Clarinetist Terence Lightfoot transitioned from prostate cancer in Milton Keynes General Hospital on March 15, 2013 at the age of 77.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rod Cless was born George Roderick Cless on May 20, 1907 in Lenox, Iowa. He began playing in bands in college including the Varsity Five, darlings of Iowa State University. In the mid-’20s he relocated to Des Moines, Iowa where he first came into contact with an important influence, bandleader Frank Teschemacher, known as “Tesch” to his musical cohorts. The two went to Chicago, Illinois together and began playing with groups such as the orchestra of Charlie Pierce.
The late ’20s saw Cless touring in the south with Frank Quartell’s Band, including his first journey to New Orleans, Lousiana. Back in Chicago he squatted at the Wigwam Club and enlisted with the combo of Louis Panico, a fairly calm bandleader despite contrary indications suggested by his surname. During this time Rod began playing more saxophone and took part in gigs with a less pronounced jazz content. Extended club residencies and stay-at-home employment allowed him to expand his clarinet instruction.
By the spring of 1939 he returned to pure jazz work joining up with Muggsy Spanier’s band the Ragtimers, followed by two years with pianist Art Hodes. Other gigs in the ’40s included work with Marty Marsala, Ed Farley, Georg Brunis, and Wild Bill Davidson as well as Bobby Hackett. In 1944 he played with Max Kaminsky at New York City’s Pied Piper Club. when Cless suffered catastrophic injuries toppling over the railings of an apartment, subsequently surviving for only four days in the hospital. ~
Named George Roderick Cless, he was related by marriage to the much better-known reedman Bud Freeman, but certainly had a respectable career in the Dixieland ensembles of leaders such as Muggsy Spanier and Bobby Hackett.
After walking home the last night of a gig at the Pied Piper in New York City, clarinetist and saxophonist Rod Cless, who recorded with Muggsy Spanier tunes for Bluebird Records, fell several stories over the balcony of his apartment and transitioned from the fall four days later on December 8, 1944 at the age of 37.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sharkey Bonano was born Joseph Gustaf Bonano on April 9, 1904 in the Milneburg neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana near Lake Pontchartrain. In the 1920s he was in the local bands of Freddie Newman and Chink Martin. After moving to New York City he found work as a member of the Wolverines and with Jimmy Durante.
He worked next to Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke as a member of the Jean Goldkette orchestra. At the end of the 1920s, he led a band which included Louis Prima. During the 1930s he formed the Sharks of Rhythm and played in the Original Dixieland Jass Band. His sidemen during this period included Santo Pecora and Thurman Teague.
After World War II he toured Europe, Asia, and South America, played residencies in Chicago and New York, and then was a regular on Bourbon Street in the New Orleans French Quarter. In 1949, he appeared at the Roosevelt Hotel’s Blue Room and the Famous Door Bar.
Trumpeter Sharkey Bonano transitioned on March 27, 1972, at the age of 67.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz
Keith John Smith was born on March 19, 1940 in Isleworth, Middlesex, England. Originally intent on pursuing studies in engineering, he began playing trumpet at the age of 15. Soon after he began playing in local amateur ensembles, including Norrie Cox’s band and the New Teao Brass Band, the latter including Chris Barber and Ken Colyer.
His first professional gig came in 1960 as a member of Mickey Ashman’s Ragtime Jazz Band. In 1962, he started the Climax Jazz Band and began recording. In 1964, Smith visited New Orleans for the first time, where he played with George Lewis. Intending to move to the U.S. permanently, he worked briefly in New Orleans, Louisiana before spending time in California and New York. In 1966, he organized an all-star band to tour Canada and Europe, which included Pops Foster, Jimmy Archey, and Alvin Alcorn.
Moving to Denmark in 1972 he remained there until 1975, playing with Papa Bue in his Viking Jazz Band. Afterwards he returned to England, where he founded a new band, Hefty Jazz. This group lasted over a decade, toured internationally and over the years featured George Chisholm, Mick Pyne, Peanuts Hucko, Nat Pierce, Johnny Mince, and Barrett Deems. Concurrently, he was named leader of the Louis Armstrong All-Stars in 1981, and in 1984 served as producer for Stardust Road, a televised film made as a tribute to Hoagy Carmichael. Late in his life he lived in Germany, still active as a performer.
Trumpeter Keith Smith, principally active on the trad jazz and Dixieland revival scenes, transitioned on January 4, 2008 in London, England from a heart attack at the age of 67.
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