Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leonard Gaskin was born August 25, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He played on the early bebop scene at Minton’s and Monroe’s in New York in the early 1940s. In 1944 he took over Oscar Pettiford’s spot in Dizzy Gillespie’s band,and followed it with stints in bands led by Cootie Williams, Charlie Parker, Don Byas, Eddie South, Charlie Shavers, and Erroll Garner.
In the 1950s, he played with Eddie Condon’s Dixieland band, and played with Ruby Braff, Bud Freeman, Rex Stewart, Cootie Williams, Billie Holiday, Stan Getz, J.J. Johnson, and Miles Davis. In the 1960s he became a studio musician, playing on numerous gospel and pop records. In the 1970s and 1980s he returned to jazz, playing with Sy Oliver, Panama Francis, and The International Art of Jazz.
Gaskin became involved in educating young people later in his life. He toured and performed at New York City schools, sharing his knowledge with elementary students with the Good Groove Band and the International Art of Jazz groups. For more than a decade, he and drummer Oliver Jackson teamed to play the European jazz festival circuit. He also regularly collaborated with Sy Oliver’s Rainbow Room Orchestra.
Capping off his career in 1994, Leonard performed at the White House’s Congressional Ball at the behest of President Bill Clinton. Although his touring schedule slowed dramatically in the decade to follow, he wrote a privately published autobiography and donated his personal jazz collection to the American Music Archives at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History.
Bassist Leonard Gaskin transitioned from natural causes at a nursing home in Queens, New York on January 24, 2009. He was 88.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Terje Rypdal was born on August 23, 1947 in Oslo, Norway, the son of a composer and orchestra leader. He studied classical piano and trumpet as a child, and then taught himself to play guitar as he entered his teens.
Starting out as a Hank Marvin-influenced rock guitarist with The Vanguards, Rypdal turned towards jazz in 1968. He joined Jan Garbarek’s group and then George Russell’s sextet and orchestra. An important step towards international attention was his participation in the 1969 free jazz festival in Baden-Baden, Germany, where he was part of a band led by Lester Bowie. During his musical studies at Oslo University and conservatory, he led the orchestra of the Norwegian version of the musical Hair.
He has recorded on the ECM record label, both jazz-oriented material and classical compositions. His compositions Last Nite and Mystery Man were featured in the Michael Mann film Heat, and included on the soundtrack. Terje has performed in concerts with guitarists Ronni Le Tekrø and Mads Eriksen as N3.
Guitarist and composer Terje Rypdal, an important member in the Norwegian jazz community, continues to compose, perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jack Sharpe was born on August 19, 1930 in London, England. He began playing tenor saxophone at age eighteen. He played with Vic Lewis and Teddy Foster in the early 1950s and freelanced in the London area.
While working as a taxi driver in 1953 he played with Dizzy Reece in 1954, then in Tubby Hayes’s band the following year until 1956. Jack played with Mike Senn in the Downbeaters after 1957, worked further with Hayes, and led his own sextet in 1958. He went on to promote and book other musicians.
In the early 1970s Sharpe managed a nightclub where he led the house band on weekends. By 1975 he had left music intermittently to continue driving a cab. He returned to jazz in 1985, playing with Alan Branscombe and leading a Tubby Hayes tribute band.
Tenor saxophonist and bandleader Jack Sharpe, who was mainly active on the London jazz scene, transitioned on November 4, 1994.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Morrow was born on August 15, 1925 in Pasadena, California. After leaving the military he played with Charlie Parker, Sonny Criss, Teddy Edwards, Hampton Hawes and other musicians who were in Los Anegles, California. He then spent five years from 1948 to 1953 in San Francisco, California often appearing at the Bop City jazz club and working with Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Billie Holiday and Sonny Clark, among others.
During the mid~1950s he recorded five albums with Sonny Rollins and at the end of the decade two with Sonny Stitt. He had been free-lancing around San Francisco clubs when Max Roach and Clifford Brown hired him to play with them after having rejected two other bassists. He appeared on all of the studio albums made by the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet.
After the band dissolved due to the deaths of Brown and Richie Powell in a car accident, Morrow continued recording with Max Roach’s band. He also worked with Anita O’Day in the 1970s before joining the Disney World house band in 1976.
Bassist George Morrow, who never led his own recording date, transitioned on May 26, 1992 in Orlando, Florida.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clifford Arthur Edgehill, originally spelled Edghill, was born July 21, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. His first professional work was touring with Mercer Ellington in 1948 and by 1953 was touring with Ben Webster. He played with Kenny Dorham’s Jazz Prophets and Gigi Gryce in 1956 and the following year toured with Dinah Washington.
He was a member of the Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis Quartet with George Duvivier and/or Wendell Marshall and Shirley Scott. He appears on several of Scott’s recordings, including her 1958 debut album, Great Scott!. as well as on Very Saxy with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Buddy Tate, Coleman Hawkins, and Arnett Cobb.
As well as recording he also played in quartets led by Horace Silver, Cecil Payne, Hank Mobley, Doug Watkins, Charlie Parker and Annie Laurie. Edgehill remained active through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, appearing on several of the Prestige recordings on Mal Waldron’s 1956 debut album, Mal-1, and with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Shirley Scott.
Drummer Arthur Edgehill retired from music in the Seventies.
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