Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Floyd “Candy” Johnson was born on May 1, 1922 in Madison, Illinois and started on drums before moving to saxophone, with Ben Webster being his biggest influence. His professional career began in St. Louis, Missouri where he was a member of a group led by Chuck Finney. He attended Wilberforce University until the draft intervened but after his service, he played in bands led by Ernie Fields, Tiny Bradshaw, and Andy Kirk. With the Kirk orchestra he recorded for Decca Records.
Johnson preferred candy to alcohol, so a band member started calling him Candy, and the moniker stuck. In Detroit he started a band called the Peppermint Sticks. One musician recalled that the band dressed in candy-striped suits, and sometimes Johnson tossed peppermint sticks to the crowd.
1951 saw him as a member of the Count Basie Orchestra, recording with Basie for Clef Records before working in more of a rhythm and blues vein with Bill Doggett. The band had hits with Blip Blop, Honky Tonk, and Night Train. Leaving Doggett in the 1960s he went on to study music at Bowling Green State University.
By 1974, Candy was playing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and his friend Clark Terry. During a visit to New York City, he recorded with Helen Humes and Roy Eldridge. A year later, he accompanied the New McKinney’s Cotton Pickers at the Bix Beiderbecke Festival in Iowa.
Saxophonist Candy Johnson, who retired from performing, moved to Toledo, Ohio and taught at local schools, passed away on June 28, 1981 in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Henryk Twardzik was born on April 30, 1931 in Danvers, Massachusetts and trained in classical piano as a child. He was taught by Margaret Chaloff, the mother of baritone saxophone player Serge Chaloff.
He made his professional debut at the age of fourteen. During his teen years Dick became addicted to heroin, which would eventually be his downfall later in life. Twardzik recorded with Serge Chaloff and Charlie Mariano. He worked with Charlie Parker on several occasions toward the end of Parker’s life. He also played professionally with Lionel Hampton and Chet Baker, recording with the latter and Chaloff in 1954 and 1955.
Pianist Dick Twardzik, who worked in Boston for most of his career, passed away of a heroin overdose while on a European tour with Chet Baker on October 21, 1955 in Paris, France.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Raymond Fol was born in Paris, France on April 28, 1928 and along with his brother Hubert was raised in a musical household. He began playing piano at five years of age, and both he and his brother played in Claude Abadie’s ensemble after the end of World War II.
The Fol brothers then formed their own group, the Be Bop Minstrels, however, Raymond worked around this time with musicians such as Pierre Braslavsky, Jean-Claude Fohrenbach, Django Reinhardt, Roy Eldridge, and Johnny Hodges. In 1952, he did a European tour in Dizzy Gillespie’s band, and for several years in the middle of the decade was a regular at Paris’s Club Saint-Germain. He also worked in the 1950s with Sidney Bechet, Claude Luter, Guy Lafitte, and Stephane Grappelli.
He worked briefly in Rome, Italy in 1958, then returned to Paris, playing both piano and celesta at the Club Saint-Germain. In the 1960s and 1970s he worked with Kenny Clarke, Duke Ellington, Paul Gonsalves, Cat Anderson, and Gerard Badini. Raymond also recorded a few times on solo piano in the first half of the 1970s.
Pianist Raymond Fol passed away in the City of Lights on May 1, 1979.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rick Henderson was born on April 25, 1928 in Washington, D.C. and studied composition as a high schooler and played locally in the late 1940s. He served in the Army from 1951 to 1953, then joined Duke Ellington’s Orchestra after being recommended by Clark Terry.
He played with Ellington during his years on Capitol Records, doing arrangements in addition to his duties as a player. He also composed tunes such as Carney for the Ellington band. After leaving Ellington’s employ in 1956, Rick returned to D.C. where he led the Howard Theatre’s house band until 1964.
Following this he worked as an arranger and composer for jazz orchestras, military bands and school ensembles. Among those who used his charts, in addition to Ellington, were Count Basie, Illinois Jacquet, and Billy Taylor. Henderson continued to lead bands into the 1990s, including the University of Maryland Jazz Ensemble from 1977 to 1978.
Saxophonist and arranger Rick Henderson passed away from arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease on May 21, 2004.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Emil Mangelsdorff was born April 11, 1925, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In 1942 and 1943, he studied clarinet at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany.
As a member of the Frankfurt Hot Club, his performance of jazz with Hans Otto Jung among others, led to his being imprisoned by the Gestapo. He was forced into the German army and was a Russian prisoner of war for four years. In 1949 he returned to Frankfurt and decided to become a professional jazz musician. Emil played in the combos of Joe Klimm and Jutta Hipp, and was also a member of the Frankfurt All Stars and the Jazz-Ensemble des Hessischen Rundfunks from 1958.
Since the 1960s he has directed his own quartet. In 1964 Mangelsdorff wrote an instruction manual for jazz saxophone. In 2006 he was awarded the Goethe-Plakette des Landes Hessen and in 2008 he received the Bundesverdienstkreuz.
Alto saxophonist Emil Mangelsdorff, who also played soprano saxophone, clarinet and flute, has retired from music at 96.
More Posts: bandleader,clarinet,flute,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone