Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Ore was born on December 17, 1933 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Attending the New School of Music in Philadelphia from 1943 to 1946, he studied cello followed this with studies on bass at Juilliard.
In the 1950s he worked with Tiny Grimes, George Wallington, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Elmo Hope, Bud Powell and Freddie Redd. From 1960 to 1963 he played in Thelonious Monk’s quartet, and then with the Les Double Six of Paris in 1964.
Later in the 1960s he returned to Powell’s band, also recording with Teddy Wilson. In the 1970s he worked with Earl Hines and was with the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1982.
Following this he became less active, never recorded an album as a leader, however recorded fifty~one albums as a sideman with not only the above but with Hank Mobley, Cecil Payne, Bud Powell, Sun Ra, Charles Tyler, Lester Young, Eric Alexander, Billy Bang, Andrew Cyrille, Earl Hines, Marva Josie, Steve Lacy, Freddie Redd, and Hampton Hawes. Bassist John Ore passed away on August 22, 2014.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Budd Johnson was born Albert J. Johnson III on December 14, 1910 in Dallas, Texas. He initially played drums and piano before switching to tenor saxophone. In the 1920s he performed in Texas and parts of the Midwest, working with Jesse Stone among others.
Making his recording debut while working with Louis Armstrong’s band from 1932 to 1933, he is more known for his work, over many years, with Earl Hines. He was an early figure in the bebop era, doing sessions with Coleman Hawkins in 1944. The 1950s saw Budd leading his own group and doing session work for Atlantic Records, being the featured tenor saxophone soloist on Ruth Brown’s hit Teardrops From My Eyes.
In the mid-1960s he began working and recording again with Hines. His association with Hines is his longest lasting and most significant. In 1975 he began working with the New York Jazz Repertory Orchestra. In 1993 he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
Throughout his career, he recorded ten albums as a leader and played and recorded thirty~two albums as a sideman with among others, Cannonball Adderley, Ben Webster, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner, Dizzy Gillespie, Carmen McRae, Bud Powell, Carrie Smith, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Count Basie, Roy Eldridge, Claude Hopkins, Etta Jones, Jimmy Smith, Randy Weston, Gil Evans, and Billie Holiday.
Tenor and soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Budd Johnson passed away of a heart attack on October 20, 1984 at the age of 73 in Kansas City, Missouri.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louis Raphael Mucci was born on December 13, 1909 in Syracuse, New York and began as a baritone horn player. By age ten, he was appearing in professional settings. As a teenager, he switched to trumpet and worked in the late 1930s with Mildred Bailey and Red Norvo before joining Glenn Miller’s ensemble in 1938-1939.
During World War II he played in the bands of Bob Chester, Hal McIntyre, Claude Thornhill, and Benny Goodman. In the first half of the 1950s, he worked as a house musician for CBS and also recorded with Buddy DeFranco and Artie Shaw.
The late 1950s saw him working with Miles Davis, Helen Merrill, and John LaPorta. His association with Davis lasted into the early 1960s and he played with Kenny Burrell in 1964. Trumpeter Lou Mucci passed away on January 4, 2000.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Maintaining my social distancing, wearing my mask when I have to go grocery shopping or to my doctor’s office, I remain in quarantine. Pulling down off the shelves is an August 30, 1960 recording titled South Side Soul. It is the debut album by jazz pianist John Wright which was released in 1960 on the Prestige label. The supervising producer on this swinging soulful hard bop date was Esmond Edwards and engineering the session recorded at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey was Rudy Van Gelder.
TRACKS | 36:06
- South Side Soul (Esmond Edwards) ~ 5:02
- 47th and Calumet (John Wright) ~ 3:57
- La Salle St After Hours (Armond Jackson) ~ 5:21
- 63rd and Cottage Grove (Wright) ~ 4:06
- 35th St Blues (Wendell Roberts) ~ 7:00
- Sin Corner (Jackson) ~ 5:30
- Amen Corner (Roberts) ~ 5:30
- John Wright – piano
- Wendell Roberts – bass
- Walter McCants – drums
During this sabbatical from flying and investigating jazz around the globe, this Quarantined Jazz Voyager wants you to know that live music in clubs and I will be back.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ronald Mathews was born on December 2, 1935 in New York City and in his twenties, he toured internationally and recorded with Max Roach, Freddie Hubbard and Roy Haynes. He was a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the late Fifties through the 1960s. By age thirty, he was teaching jazz piano and leading workshops, clinics and master classes at Long Island University in New York City.
During the 1970s Ronnie recorded with Dexter Gordon and Clark Terry, toured and recorded on two Louis Hayes projects, the Louis Hayes~Woody Shaw Quintet and the Louis Hayes~Junior Cook Quintet. One of his longest associations and a highlight of his career was with the Johnny Griffin Quartet. For almost five years, from 1978~1982, he was an integral part of this band, forging lasting relationships with Griffin, drummer Kenny Washington, and bassist Ray Drummond.
The Eighties saw Mathews honing his role as a frontman, performing as a leader in duo, trio, and quartet configurations around the world. He again toured with Freddie Hubbard and Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Band, was the pianist for the Tony Award~winning Broadway musical, Black and Blue in 1989, and, in 1990, he was one of the artists who recorded for Spike Lee’s movie, Mo’ Better Blues.
After a stint touring and recording with the Clifford Jordan Big Band in the early 1990s, Mathews joined T.S. Monk for eight years of touring and recording three albums with the band. In 1998, Hal Leonard Books published his collection of student arrangements: Easy Piano of Thelonious Monk.
As both a mentor and musician with Generations, a group of jazz musicians headed by veteran drummer Jimmy Cobb, he contributed two new compositions for the album that was released posthumously to his death by San Francisco State University’s International Center for the Arts on September 15, 2008.
Pianist Ronnie Matthews recorded 14 albums as a leader and more than three dozen as a sideman during his career, passing away on June 28, 2008 in Brooklyn, New York.
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