Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ray Anthony was born Raymond Antonini on January 20, 1922 into an Italian family in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania but moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he studied the trumpet. From 1940~1941 he played in Glenn Miller’s band and appeared in the Glenn Miller movie Sun Valley Serenade before joining the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war he formed his own group and the Ray Anthony Orchestra became popular in the early 1950s with The Bunny Hop, Hokey Pokey, and the theme from Dragnet. He had a No. 2 chart hit with a remake of the Glenn Miller tune At Last in 1952, the highest charting pop version of the song in the United States.
The following year his orchestra was featured when Helen O’Connell and Bob Eberly headlined a summer replacement program for Perry Como’s CBS television show. From 1953–1954 Ray was musical director of the television series TV’s Top Tunes.
After appearing as himself in the 1955 film Daddy Long Legs and starring in a short-lived television variety show, The Ray Anthony Show. Anthony he revved up his acting appearing in films during the late 1950s. In 1957, Anthony and his orchestra recorded the music score for the film This Could Be The Night, with vocals performed by Julie Wilson.
After his marriage to Mamie van Doren ende so did his brief film career. He continued his musical career and had another hit record with the theme from Peter Gunn, which reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. Among his pianists was Allen “Puddler” Harris, and Kellie Greene, who also played the vibraphone. As a composer he wrote Thunderbird, The Bunny Hop, Trumpet Boogie, Big Band Boogie, and Mr. Anthony’s Boogie. Trumpeter Ray Anthony remains active today.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Streamline Ewing was born John Richard Ewing on January 19, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas and began his career when he was seventeen. Four years later he was with Horace Henderson, then with Earl Hines live and on record from 1938 to 1939 and from 1941 to 1942. He worked for short spans with Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton in the 1940s, in addition through the 1940 decade he worked with Jimmie Lunceford, Cab Calloway, Jay McShann, Cootie Williams, Louis Jordan, and Earl Bostic.
Moving to California in the early 1950s Ewing played with George Jenkins and in the studio with T-Bone Walker and Gerald Wilson. He began playing with Teddy Buckner in 1956 and the two would play together on and off into the 1980s. He led his band the Streamliners for recording sessions in 1958 and 1960. In 1962 he toured with Henderson again and with Rex Stewart in 1967. Late in the 1960s he played in the Young Men of New Orleans band.
In 1983 he played with the Eagle Brass Band and recorded with Johnny Otis in 1990. In the 1990s he played on two Willy DeVille albums: Backstreets of Desire and Big Easy Fantasy.
A prolific session player he recorded with Hoyt Axton, David Bromberg, Roy Brown, Bobby Bryant, Teddy Buckner, Red Callender, Papa John Creach, Willy DeVille, Judy Henske, Earl Hines, Diana Ross, Ike & Tina Turner, and Bob Thiele among others. Trombonist Streamline Ewing passed away on February 1, 2002 in Pasadena, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Annette Neuffer was born on January 15, 1966 in Munich, Germany. She didn’t start playing the trumpet until he was 18. Three years later she began studying music at the Graz University of Music , majoring in jazz trumpet . Another two yearsand she moved to the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts, where she completed her diploma under Claus Stötter in 1996.
As a trumpeter she has worked with the Sarah Morrow Allstars in Paris, Benny Golson, Hal Singer, Mike Carr, Benny Waters, Jimmy Woode, and Horst Jankowski. In 1994 Annette was invited by the Sunday Night Orchestra as a singer for a project with Al Porcino. In 1995 she brought Porcino into his own big band, of which she was a singer for eleven years.
Since 2001 she has released four albums with her own quintet. She is an active composer and lyricist. She performed with the Bobby Burgess Big Band Explosion, Alexander’s Swingtime Band and Pete York. Vocalist, trumpeter, composer and lyricist Annette Neuffer continues to compose, perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Malcolm Cecil was born on January 9, 1937 in London, England. By the time he came of age he was a founding member of the UK’s leading jazz quintet of the late 1950s, The Jazz Couriers, before going on to join a number of British jazz combos led by Dick Morrissey, Tony Crombie and Ronnie Scott into the early 1960s.
Malcolm later joined Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner to form the original line-up of Blues Incorporated. With Robert Margouleff he formed the duo TONTO’s Expanding Head Band, a project based on a unique combination of synthesizers. This led to them collaborating on and co-producing several of Stevie Wonder’s Grammy-winning albums Talking Book, Music of My Mind, Innervisions and Fulfillingness’ First Finale of the early 1970s. They are also credited as engineers for the Stevie Wonder produced 1974 album Perfect Angel by Minnie Riperton.
Their unique sound made them highly sought-after and they went on to venture in not only jazz, but rock and r&b to collaborate with, amongst others, Quincy Jones, Gil Scott-Heron, Weather Report, Bobby Womack, The Isley Brothers, Billy Preston, Stephen Stills, The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, Little Feat, Joan Baez and Steve Hillage. Bassist, engineer and record producer Malcolm Cecil continues to perform and produce.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dick Charlesworth, born Richard Anthony Charlesworth on January 8, 1932 in Sheffield, England. Attending King Edward VII School, at 16, he became a clerk in the Ministry of Labour and was in due course transferred to London. He bought a clarinet and started playing jazz as a hobby in 1952. Entirely self-taught, he became good enough to play clarinet and saxophone in a dance band and performed with jazz bands in south London including Jim Weller’s Jazzmen.
He formed his first group in 1956 and his Dick Charlesworth’s Jazzmen won the South London Jazz Band Championship in 1957. His group was signed by the Melodisc label, and they recorded an EP in December 1957 and produced an album for Doug Dobell’s 77 Records.
Leaving the Civil Service in 1959 he became a professional musician and signed a recording contract with EMI, remarketing the group as Dick Charlesworth’s City Gents. This was the time of light jazz, sporting distinctive attire of pin stripes and bowler hats, with their Latin motto, Dum vivimus vivamus, simply translated as “While we live, let us enjoy life”. They charted one single Billy Boy on the UK Singles Chart in 1961.
When jazz went out of vogue in the Sixties, Dick broke up his band, and from 1964 to 1969 fronted a band on the cruise liners. He then settled in Mojacar, Spain where he ran a music bar. Returning to Britain in 1977, he was active on the London jazz scene until the early 2000s working with, among others, Keith Smith, Rod Mason, Alan Littlejohn, Denny Wright, and appeared on the BBC Radio series, Jazz Score.
In his later years, Charlesworth lived in Thames Ditton, Surrey, and played a residency at various pubs with his band The Dick Charlesworth’s Fraternity Four, and released their final recording in 2004. Clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader Dick Charlesworth passed away following a heart attack on April 15, 2008, at the age of 76.
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