Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leonard Walter Bush was born in London, England on June 6, 1927 and contracted polio as a child which left him with a limp for the rest of his life. He studied and played violin before switching to bass at sixteen. By 17 he was playing professionally in a variety show called The Rolling Stones and Dawn. He played with Nat Gonella in the middle of the 1940s but turned to bebop later in the decade.
From 1950 onwards Lennie did a lot of freelance work and worked with Roy Fox in 1951. He was one of the founding members of London’s Club Eleven, the first London jazz club to offer performers a paid gig. He played there from 1952-1956 in a band with Ronnie Scott, trumpeter Hank Shaw, pianist Tommy Pollard, and drummer Tony Crombie.
He studied with James Merrett at the Guildhall School of Music and participated in the European tours of Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Zoot Sims, and Roy Eldridge. Becoming a member of Jack Parnell’s ATV Orchestra in 1957, he recorded with Stephane Grappelli, Anita O’Day, and Eddie Vinson. He continued to play in the 1990s as part of the Ralph Sharon Trio with Jack Parnell. During that decade he also appeared with Don Lusher’s Ted Heath tribute band and played in the final Ted Heath concert in 2000.
Double bassist Lennie Bush continued to freelance into the 2000s until his death on June 15, 2004.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marc Steckar was born on June 1, 1935 in Cherbourg, France. He began learning the cello from age eight, then played the trumpet. During his studies at the Paris National Conservatory, he switched to the trombone in 1953, which he studied with André Lafosse. After an interruption due to his military service in the Algerian War, he completed his training and in 1959 he received the second prize for trombone.
In the next few years he worked in the big band of Benny Bennet, in the Aimé Barelli orchestra in the Monte Carlo casinos and in Olympia where he played Marlene Dietrich and Nat King Cole, with whom he toured Europe. He played in the orchestra of Paul Mauriat accompanying Charles Aznavour, then in the big band of Daniel Janin who played behind Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Gilbert Bécaud and Sammy Davis Jr. in 1961.
Over the next few years he worked as a studio musician, among others for Michel Legrand , Vladimir Cosma and for various television shows, but also again at the Olympia for Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire. Between 1973 and 1983, Marc accompanied Claude Nougaro with Eddy Louiss and Maurice Vander before becoming a member of Martial Solal’s big band. He recorded film music with Vander.
He went on to form Steckar TUBAPACK, and the Elephant Tuba Horde Big Band. Steckar is also on albums by François Jeanneau, Illinois Jacquet and Sonny Rhodes. Tubist Marc Stekar, who played trombone, bass trombone, euphonium, and was a composer, passed away on June 27, 2015 in Bessancourt, Val-d’Oise, France.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Red Holloway was born James Wesley Holloway on May 31, 1927 in Helena, Arkansas, and started playing banjo and harmonica before switching to tenor saxophone when he was 12 years old. Graduating from DuSable High School, where he had played in the school big band with Johnny Griffin and Eugene Wright, and attended the Conservatory of Music, Chicago, Illinois.
Joining the Army when he was 19, Red became bandmaster for the U.S. Fifth Army Band, and after completing his military service returned to Chicago and played with Yusef Lateef and Dexter Gordon, among others. In 1948, he joined blues vocalist Roosevelt Sykes, and later played with other rhythm & blues musicians such as Willie Dixon, Junior Parker, and Lloyd Price.
In the 1950s, he played in the Chicago area with Billie Holiday, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Ben Webster, Jimmy Rushing, Arthur Prysock, Dakota Staton, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Wardell Gray, Sonny Rollins, Red Rodney, Lester Young, Joe Williams, Redd Foxx, B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and Aretha Franklin. During this period, he also toured with Sonny Stitt, Memphis Slim and Lionel Hampton. He became a member of the house band for Chance Records in 1952. He subsequently appeared on many recording sessions for the Chicago-based independents Parrot, United, States, and Vee-Jay.
From 1963 to 1966, he was in organist Brother Jack McDuff’s band, which also featured guitarist George Benson, who was then at the start of his career. In 1974, Holloway recorded The Latest Edition with John Mayall and toured Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. From 1977 to 1982, he worked with Sonny Stitt, recording two albums together. Following Stitt’s death, he played and recorded with Clark Terry.
Tenor saxophonist Red Holloway passed away in Morro Bay, California, aged 84 of a stroke and kidney failure on February 25, 2012, one month after Etta James, with whom he had worked extensively.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sandy Mosse was born on May 29, 1929 in Detroit, Michigan and learned clarinet and alto saxophone early in life, but switched to tenor saxophone at the beginning of the 1950s. Based out of Chicago, Illinois during the decade, he made several forays abroad, playing in Paris with Wallace Bishop in 1951. On his 1953 tour of Europe he performed with Django Reinhardt and Woody Herman.
Upon returning to Chicago in 1955 he played with Bill Russo, Chubby Jackson, James Moody, and Cy Touff. Mosse and Touff also co-led an octet called Pieces of Eight late in the 1950s into the early 1960s, featuring trumpeter John Howell. He received awards from Down Beat and Playboy late in the 1950s.
The 1960s saw him playing with Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, and Dave Remington. During this time Sandy formed a band with flugelhornist Warren Kime called Pieces of Eight. Unfortunately, that same decade he was diagnosed with cancer.
Marrying a Dutch woman Clara, he moved to Amsterdam in the 1970s, playing on national radio and teaching at the Royal Dutch Conservatory. Recording less, he occasionally toured the U.S. with Zoot Sims and Al Cohn. In the Netherlands, he played with an ensemble called Volume Two, with Irvin Rochlin, Klaus Flenter, Evert Hekkema, Ben Gerritsen, and Lex Cohen.
Tenor saxophonist Sandy Mosse, influenced by Lester Young, passed away on July 1, 1983 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herbert “Kat” Cowans, also spelled Cowens, was born May 24, 1904 in Texas. Working as a shoeshine boy as a child, his first professional engagement as a drummer was with the Satisfied Five, a local Texas ensemble. After moving to Wichita Falls, Texas he played in Frenchy’s New Orleans Jazz Band, then worked with Charlie Dixon. Quitting Dixon’s ensemble to finish high school while still in his teens, he went on to play in theater orchestras early in the 1920s.
Moving to New York City, Cowans played with Cleo Mitchell in the Shake Your Feet revue. Following this, he did work with the Kansas City Blackbirds, Jimmy Cooper’s Black and White Revue, and Eubie Blake in addition to leading his own band.
In the 1930s Herbert played with Fats Waller and Stuff Smith, before joining Eddie Heywood’s band for recordings behind Billie Holiday in 1941. He worked with Garvin Bushell in 1942, then played in the pit orchestra for the Broadway show The Pirate.
Cowans led a USO band in 1943, touring military bases worldwide, then led small ensembles for several decades thereafter. He also worked with Louis Metcalfe in 1963. He worked with USO again in East Asia in the 1970s, then retired to Dallas, Texas. Drummer Herbert Cowans passed away on January 23, 1993.
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