Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Addison Gerald Farmer was born on August 21, 1928 in Council Bluffs, Iowa and was born an hour after his twin brother Art, reportedly at 2201 Fourth Avenue. Their parents divorced when the boys were four, and their steelworker father was killed in a work accident not long afterward. He moved with his grandfather, grandmother, mother, brother and sister to Phoenix, Arizona when he was still four.

Addison and his brother moved to Los Angeles, California in 1945 and attended the music-oriented Jefferson High School. There they gained music instruction and met other developing musicians such as Sonny Criss, Ernie Andrews, Big Jay McNeely and Ed Thigpen. The brothers earned money by working in a cold-storage warehouse and by playing professionally.

Taking bass lessons from Frederick Zimmermann, he went on to study at Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music. By late 1945, Farmer was with Johnny Alston and His Orchestra recording for the Bihari Brothers’ Modern Music label, and shortly after on the Blue Moon label. He later recorded with Teddy Edwards’s band. Farmer played in several groups with his brother, including in ensembles led by Benny Golson, Gigi Gryce, Mose Allison, Jay McShann, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis.

Bassist Addison Farmer, who recorded extensively for Prestige Records, transitioned from sudden unexpected death syndrome on February 20, 1963, in New York City at the age of 34.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

James Elbert Raney was born on August 20, 1927 in Louisville, Kentucky.In 1946, he worked his first paying gig as the guitarist with the Max Miller Quartet at Elmer’s in Chicago, Illinois. He was also a member of the Artie Shaw Orchestra and collaborated with Woody Herman for nine months in 1948. He also collaborated and recorded with Buddy DeFranco, Al Haig and later on with Bob Brookmeyer.

In 1967, alcoholism and other professional difficulties led him to leave New York City and return to his native Louisville. Raney lived with Ménière’s disease for thirty years, a degenerative condition that led to near deafness in both ears, although this did not stop him from playing.

In 1954 and 1955, he won the DownBeat Critics’ Poll for guitar. Guitarist Jimmy Raney, one of the most gifted and influential post war jazz guitarists in the world, transitioned from heart failure in Louisville on May 10, 1995.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

In 1970 he played with Albert Ayler at the Fondation Maeght in France. Two years later he toured throughout Europe with Karl Berger, recorded with Mal Waldron for Enja, and with Albert Mangelsdorff. In 1976 Allen played with a German jazz rock group called Embryo and in France he collaborated with Bireli Lagrene.

By 1991 he recorded Life at the Montreux Music Festival in trio-formation with Günter Lenz and Uli Lenz. For over twenty years he played with saxophonist Olaf Schönborn and bassist Mario Fadani in Trio Variety. Since 2009 with tap dancer Kurt Albert and Olaf Schönborn in Melody Rhythm & Tap.

Drummer Allen Blairman was diagnosed with cancer in January and transitioned on April 29, 2022 in Heidelberg, Germany at 81 years of age.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Donald Vernon Burrows was born on August 8, 1928 Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia and attended Bondi Public School. In 1937, visiting flutist and teacher Victor McMahon inspired him to start learning the flute, beginning on a B-flat flute. By 1940 he was captain of the Metropolitan Schools Flute Band and studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.^[2]

In 1942, Burrows had begun playing clarinet and appeared on The Youth Show, a Macquarie Radio show. In 1944 he was invited to play and record with George Trevare’s Australians. He became well-known in Sydney jazz circles and was performing in dance halls, nightclubs and radio bands.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Burrows had many engagements in Australia and the United States, including six years performing at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney. In 1972, he was invited to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival^[4] and later the Newport Jazz Festival.

He received his first gold record in 1973 for his record Just the Beginning, instigating the first jazz studies program in the southern hemisphere, at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) and appointed Chair of Jazz Studies at the conservatorium.

Though he mostly performed to classical music audiences through tours with Musica Viva and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation concert series, he had an extensive recording career with his groups and performed on albums by others. He also worked with Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Oscar Peterson, Tony Bennett, Stéphane Grappelli, Cleo Laine, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

His arthritis from age 38, though making it somewhat difficult to play, never stopped him. In later years he had Alzheimer’s disease and lived in a nursing home in northern Sydney. Saxophonist, flutist and clarinetist Don Burrows transitioned on 12 March 12, 2020, aged 91.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Alan Lee was born on July 29, 1936 in Melbourne, Australia. He was one of the first Australian jazz musicians to fuse classical music with jazz and to utilize Latin American rhythms in his music.

He led several jazz bands in Melbourne and Sydney from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Some of his recorded albums include his Seventies’ projects Gallery Concerts, The Alan Lee Jazz Quartet, Moomba Jazz ’76, Live from the Dallas Brooks Hall, and Alan Lee and Friends: Jazz at the Hyde Park Hotel in 1990, among others.

Bandleader, vibraphonist, guitarist, and percussionist Alan Lee at 86 continues to dabble in music.

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