Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Adam Cohen was born on March 12, 1963 in Queens, New York but would soon find Los Angeles, California home when his parents moved to the West Coast. His musical foundation was built upon the piano lessons introduced to him at the age of six by his father Irwin, an accomplished pianist & composer. However, it would be the sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire, The Beatles, Chicago, Tower of Power, and Stanley Clarke that lured him to the low end. Add the influences of Ray Brown, Charles Mingus, Paul Chambers, and Dave Holland and lessons on both the upright and electric bass commenced.
Playing both acoustic & electric bass, Cohen has led him to work with Ernie Watts, Ray Charles, The New York Voices, Phil Upchurch, Taylor Dayne, Engelbert Humperdinck, David Benoit, Maxine Nightingale, Eric Benet, and Mark Isham, among others.
Having found his voice, he has become a ubiquitous presence on the Los Angeles scene and a leader in his own right with two albums, Gig Bag and Ritual, along with many compositions to his credit. Bassist Adam Cohen continues to move forward and reach upward, teaching privately and fueling his desire to make a positive impact on the musical situation at hand.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jackie Mills was born on March 11, 1922 in New York City and he first learned guitar before picking up drums when he was ten years old. He played in the swing groups of Charlie Barnet and Boyd Raeburn in the 1940s. He followed with gigs with Jazz at the Philharmonic, Gene Norman, Babe Russin, Mannie Klein, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Rene Touzet, Sonny Criss, Andre Previn, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, and Red Norvo.
In the late 1940s Jackie became interested in bebop and began playing in a style influenced by Max Roach. He began playing with Harry James in 1949, working with him through the late 1950s.
Mills recorded as a session musician during the 50s, working with artists such as Gerry Wiggins and Anita O’Day. In his later career, Mills recorded occasionally, including with Freddie Roach in 1966 and Dodo Marmarosa in 1978, but was chiefly active as a record producer and co-founder of Choreo Records, doing production work for Columbia, MGM, Mainstream, Capitol and Liberty Records.
In 1969, Mills acquired Larrabee Sound Studios from its co-founders Gerry Goffin and Carole King. As owner and operator through the mid-1980s, the studio was acquired by his son Kevin.
Drummer Jackie Mills transitioned on March 22, 2010 in Beaumont, California.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Donald Trenner was born in New Haven, Connecticut on March 10, 1927. He began his career playing with Ted Fio Rito from 1943 to 1945, and followed this with a slot in Buddy Morrow’s orchestra in 1947.
In the Fifties Donn worked with Charlie Barnet, Jerry Gray, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Georgie Auld, Jerry Fielding, Skinnay Ennis, Les Brown, Dick Haymes, Jack Jones, Lena Horne, Ann-Margret, Shirley MacLaine and Nancy Wilson. By 1957 he was playing with Oscar Pettiford and toured Europe the following year with Anita O’Day.
Entertaining the U.S. troops, Trenner toured with Bob Hope. In addition, he recorded with Tommy Dorsey, Vic Schoen, Howard McGhee, Frances Faye, Betty Roche, Nelson Riddle, Paul Broadnax, Dave Pell, Charles Mingus, and Ben Webster.
The 1960s saw him working as a studio musician, and leading The Steve Allen Show house band. He continued working in television throughout the 1970s and 80s. He led his own band, The Donn Trio with his first wife Helen Carr as the vocalist. Never recording as a leader, pianist and arranger Donn Trenner transitioned on May 16, 2020.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anat Fort was born March 8, 1970 near Tel Aviv, Israel. She studied music at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey and moved to New York City in 1996 to develop her skills in jazz improvisation under the guidance of pianist Paul Bley and study composition with Harold Seletsky before releasing her debut self-produced album Peel in 1999.
Signing with ECM Records, her first album A Long Story, released in 2007 arose from an association with drummer Paul Motian. This was followed by And If in 2010, the first album with her regular working group, the Anat Fort Trio.
Pianist and composer Anat Fort has recorded several acclaimed albums, has performed across Europe and the United States, and continues to pursue her jazz endeavors.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Edward Davis was born in 1915 in Madison, Georgia. He and his family moved to Gary, Illinois, and then to Englewood, New Jersey, where he completed his high school education. Being musically gifted, he was accepted into the Juilliard School in New York City to study piano and composition, his fees being paid by a benefactress.
In the late 1930s he wrote the song Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) with Ram Ramirez but could not initially place it, until he offered it to Billie Holiday in 1942. However, due to the 1942–44 musicians’ strike Holiday didn’t record the song until 1944. Although at first it was only a minor hit, it soon achieved widespread success and went on to become a jazz standard.
During the early 1940s Davis struggled to make a living as a songwriter and supplemented his meagre royalties by giving piano lessons. Drafted in 1942, but as a member of the NAACP, refused enlistment into the segregated regiment, was ultimately imprisoned for thirteen days, then inducted into the army, serving three and a half years. By 1945, as a warrant officer, he was sent to France for six months, and learned the language. Back home, upon his discharge he left for Hollywood, joined the Actors’ Laboratory Theatre, however his acting career only offered stereotypical racial roles. At the end of 1947 he emigrated to France.
Warmly welcomed in Paris, in part, due to the fame of the song Lover Man, he styled himself Jimmy “Lover Man” Davis and entered a highly creative period, writing a number of songs and placing them with major French performers, such as Yves Montand, Maurice Chevalier, and Joséphine Baker. His songwriting royalties were still insufficient to live on, so he began singing his own songs in solo performances, touring through France, Italy, Holland, Spain, Switzerland and other countries.
Composer, songwriter, vocalist, pianist and actor Jimmy Davis, whose birth and death dates are currently unknown, and who was a close friend of Langston Hughes, transitioned in Paris, France in 1997. His biography, In Search of Jimmy ‘Lover Man’ Davis, was written by Professor François Grosjean.
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