Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mousey Alexander was born Elmer Alexander on June 19, 1922 in Gary, Indiana. He studied at the Roy Knapp School in Chicago, Illinois. It was there that he started a working relationship with Jimmy McPartland and soon afterward began playing with is wife Marian.

By the middle of the 1950s he played with the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra and performed in a small group with guitarist Johnny Smith. In 1956 he accompanied Benny Goodman on a tour of the Far EAst. Later in the decade he often worked with Bud Freeman and Eddie Condon.  He would go on to play with Charlie Ventura, Billie Holiday, Red Norvo, Clark Terry, Ralph Sutton, Sy Oliver and Doc Severinsen.

Freelancing during the 1960s with many bands, it was in the 1970s Alexander started recording for Harry Lim under the Famous Door record label. A great well-schooled drummer able to swing any band, he performed with his friend Buddy Rich, who thought highly of his playing.

Drummer Mousey Alexander had a bad stroke in 1980 but fully recovered over time, and played up until his death of heart and kidney failure on October 9, 1988 at age 66.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Javon Anthony Jackson was born June 16, 1965 in Carthage, Mississippi and raised in Denver, Colorado by parents who were musicians. His mother played the piano, and his father played trumpet, but he didn’t begin playing alto saxophone until age 10. By 16 he changed to the tenor saxophone and was taught by pianist Billy Wallace.

He briefly enrolled at the University of Denver prior to spending part of 1985-86 at Berklee College of Music, which he abandoned to become a Messenger with Art Blakey. Jackson would later finish his undergraduate degree and obtained a master’s degree from the State University of New York at Purchase where he later taught.

The hard bop, soul and mainstream tenor saxophonist has played with the Harper Brothers, Benny Green, Freddie Hubbard and Elvin Jones among others. He has fourteen albums as a leader, mainly on the Criss Cross and Blue Note labels. In between performing, touring or recording, he heads the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford and has been doing so since 2013.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Eddie Beal was born June 13, 1910 in Redlands, California. He started on drums but switched to piano in his teens. Early in the 1930s he worked in the orchestras of Earl Dancer and Charlie Echols and 1933 to 1936 he toured China with Buck Clayton. Following that stint he freelanced in California with Maxine Sullivan and others until 1941.

After military service from 1941–43, Beal accompanied Ivie Anderson and then led his own trio accompanying Billie Holiday at one point. He also worked in the Spirits of Rhythm. As a composer, he penned the tunes “Softly” (covered by Holliday) and “Bye and Bye”, a hit for The Turbans. He plays on the soundtrack to the 1951 film The Strip, he also makes an appearance in the film.

His later recording credits included but not limited to work with Toni Harper, Jimmy Mundy, Herb Jeffries, Helen Humes and Red Callender.   He led his own group in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1973-74, and in 1974-75 he played with Tommy Dorsey.

Pianist Eddie Beal passed away on December 15, 1984 in Los Angeles, California.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Nils Lindberg was born on June 11, 1933 in Uppsala, Sweden to a family of musicians from Gagnef, Dalecarlia. His musical taste and influence come from the traditional folk music of his home. He studied piano as a child and classical composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Lars-Erik Larsson and Karl-Birger Blomdahl.

Lindberg is known both as a jazz composer and musician, but also compases for choir and symphony. Several of his works are written in a style combing elements of jazz, Swedish folk music and classical music. He has recorded sixteen albums as a leader since his debut with Sax Appeal in 1960.

For several years Nils Lindberg worked together with one of Sweden’s leading vocalists Alice Babs, as a composer, arranger, pianist and conductor. He has also written arrangements for Duke Ellington, with whom Babs performed and recorded with. He has collaborated with internationally renowned artists like Josephine Baker, Mel Tormé and Judy Garland, and has toured Europe and Brazil, as well as the United States, where he has also been invited to give lectures.

Nils Lindberg, pianist and composer was awarded the Jussi Björling scholarship in 1990 and the medal Litteris et Artibus in 2006 for his contributions to music. He continues to compose, perform, record and tour.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Royce Campbell was born on June 7, 1952 in Seymour, Indiana the son of a career navy man. Growing up in several U.S. cities and abroad including Asia, Europe and the West Indies he was exposed to different music genres as a child. These added to his musical style and approach in jazz composition and playing. Though mainly associated with mainstream jazz, his first love was rock and roll that connected him at age nine to the guitar and Chuck Berry, followed by Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton..

By the time Royce finished high school in the early 1970s, he was certain he wanted to pursue a professional career in music. His uncle, Carroll DeCamp, an arranger/pianist who arranged for Stan Kenton and Les Elgart invited the young guitarist to live with him and study in Indiana, providing most of his musical education in theory and composition. By age 21, he had begun touring with R&B artist Marvin Gaye and developing his talents for stage performance. In 1975 he was hired by a local music contractor to do three concerts with award-winning film composer Henry Mancini in Indianapolis. Soon after Royce became the touring guitarist with Mancini’s orchestra, holding that positing until Mancini’s death in 1994.

Though appearing on recordings as a sideman, and a couple as leader, during the early years of his career, Campbell started recording and touring more on his own during the 1990s, focusing at first on mainstream or straight-ahead jazz. Although he cites Wes Montgomery as his main influence, the horn of Dexter Gordon, and Chet Baker also had a great impact.

In 1993, he produced Project G-5: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery which also featured guitarists Tal Farlow, Jimmy Raney, Herb Ellis and Cal Collins. His 1994 album 6×6 featured guitarists Pat Martino, John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Dave Stryker and Bucky Pizzarelli. A follow-up Project G-5: A Tribute to Joe Pass, in 1999, Royce brought together the talents of Charlie Byrd, Gene Bertoncini, Mundell Lowe and John Pisano.

During his career guitarist Royce Campbell has released more than 30 CDs as leader or co-leader among various sideman projects. Fifteen of these CDs have made it onto the US national jazz radio charts. His soloing is documented among other jazz guitarists of the era, in Mel Bay’s Anthology of Jazz Guitar Solos: Featuring Solos by the World’s Finest Jazz Guitarists!  He has been inducted into the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation Hall of Fame and continues to record, perform and tour.

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