Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marky Markowitz was born Irwin Markowitz but also known as Irving Markowitz on December 11, 1923 in Washington, DC. The youngest of seven children of Russian-Jewish immigrants, he learned the trumpet at the local Police Boys’ Club. He played early in his career in a number of big bands during the Forties, including those of Charlie Spivak, Jimmy Dorsey, Boyd Raeburn, and Woody Herman. He played in Buddy Rich’s orchestra in 1946–47, then returned to service under Herman in 1947–48.
Moving his family from Washington, D.C. to New York City in 1958 he eventually settled in Nyack, New York where he worked primarily as a studio musician in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. During this period in his career he did appear on stage with Herman, Gene Krupa, Lee Konit, Ralph Burns, George Russell, Al Cohn, Paul Desmond, and Bill Evans. Marky was a first call trumpeter for many top artists of the time including Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, the Young Rascals, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Maynard Ferguson, George Segal, and many others. He played as well on hundreds of advertising jingles, TV ads and movie scores.
He was a perennial on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, had a vocal impression of Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, and performed in his hometown with an All-Star band, led by Nelson Riddle, at the Inaugural Ball for President Ronald Reagan’s 2nd term.
Trumpeter and flugelhornist Marky Markowitz, who recorded one album as a leader titled Marks Vibes, transitioned on November 18, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie Ventura was born Charles Venturo on December 2, 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the 1940s, he played saxophone for the Gene Krupa and Teddy Powell bands. In 1945 he was named best tenor saxophonist by DownBeat magazine.
During the Forties he led big bands and led a band which included Conte Candoli, Bennie Green, Boots Mussulli, Ed Shaughnessy, Jackie Cain, and Roy Kral. By the 1950s he formed the Big Four with Buddy Rich, Marty Napoleon, and Chubby Jackson. He was a sideman with Krupa through the 1960s, then worked in Las Vegas with comedian Jackie Gleason. By the 1980s he slowed down until finally retiring from music.
Tenor saxophonist and bandleader Charlie Ventura transitioned from lung cancer on January 17, 1992 in Pleasantville, New Jersey at age 75. was an American from
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Conti was born November 21, 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was an autodidact, first performing locally at age fourteen and mentoring with Pat Martino. In 1966, after four years on the road touring North America, he settled in Jacksonville, Florida.
In 1970, he dropped out of the music business to work in the securities field. Six years later he picked up his guitar and by 1979, he signed with Discovery Records. Conti released Solo Guitar as his debut as a leader and his sophomore project Latin Love Affair. By 1982 he left music again for the business world but again in 1985 he released another album. The following year he headlined the Florida National Jazz Festival, with Jimmy McGriff and Nick Brignola as his sidemen.
In mid-1988 he was offered a position under filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis in Beverly Hills, California. After a lengthy recovery from a back injury in late 1988, he was offered a position as resident jazz guitarist at the Irvine Marriott, a job he held until 1998.
Since starting his website in 2000, he has released 30 educational DVDs on jazz guitar, including pro chord melody and improvisation using his No Modes No Scales approach to teaching jazz guitar. Guitarist and educator Robert Conti, who has his own line of solid spruce thinline archtop jazz guitars since 2009, continues to teach, and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Graham was born on November 18, 1937 in New York City. Inspired by his father who played the trombone, he acquired an early interest in rhythm which prompted him to begin the study of drums at age nine. After moving with his family from New York to Miami, Florida at 14, he had a continuing television series on WTVJ with his Swing Kings. During this time his interest in Dixieland jazz was fostered by an acquaintance with drummer “Preacher” Rollo Laylan who frequently imported jazz names to Miami.
Attending the University of Miami he performed for several seasons with the Miami Symphony before migrating to California to accompany such diverse luminaries as Jack Jones, Elvis Presley, and Anita O’Day. He toured as accompanist and conductor for Roberta Sherwood, Vic Dana and Kay Stevens during the Sixties. Eddie settled in Las Vegas, Nevada on a long term contract with Latin concert pianist, Esquivel. He toured Japan with the Village Stompers, and appeared on television with ragtime pianist Big Tiny Little. As a percussionist in the Vegas showrooms, he accompanied Rich Little, Sammy Davis Jr., Presley, Johnny Mathis, and Mack Davis, while hitting the stage with his own jazz group.
The early seventies saw him in Hawaii with trombonist Trummy Young and then hooked up with Earl “Fatha” Hines as a featured artist from 1975 to 1980. On concert tours in Europe, Australia, South America and Japan, Ed has appeared with such artists as Benny Carter, Joe Venuti, Bobby Hackett, Red Norvo, Dorothy Donegan, Barney Bigard, and Stan Getz.
Graham went on to record two albums as a leader, one studio and one live, Hot Stix and S’Wonderful Jazz, respectively. He recorded with Earl Hines on Tony Bennet’s Improv record label, with Marva Josie and a collaboration with trumpeter Billy Butterfield.
In the 80’s, he was a musical director and featured soloist in Las Vegas, and a member of the Peanuts Hucko Quartet in Palm Springs, Califonia. He [layed numerous festivals and clubs around the country during this period, and was a founding member of the 21 piece Monterey Peninsula Jazz Orchestra as percussionist and soloist at Clint Eastwood’s Mission Ranch in Carmel. At eighty-five drummer Eddie Graham still occasionally plays.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Curtis Sylvester Lowe, Sr. was born on November 15, 1919 in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Oakland, California. He first learned to play soprano saxophone as a youth and studied briefly in Alabama before deciding to take up music full-time. Best known professionally as a tenor and baritone saxophonist, he played in traveling bands before the outbreak of World War II. Enlisting in the United States Navy in 1942, his unit band was full of noteworthy jazz musicians, including Vernon Alley, Wilbert Baranco, Buddy Collette, Jerome Richardson, Ernie Royal, and Marshall Royal.
In the 1950s Curtis worked extensively with Lionel Hampton and also played with Dave Brubeck, Little Esther, Johnny Otis, and Gerald Wilson. He led his own five-piece ensemble in 1952-1953. In 1958 he began a decade-long association with Earl Hines.
He was active locally in San Francisco, California and the Bay Area into the 1980s. Saxophonist Curtis Lowe Sr., who never recorded as a leader, transitioned at the age of 73 on October 29, 1993.
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