Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank L. Marocco was born January 2, 1931 in Joliet, Illinois but grew up in Waukegan, near Chicago, Illinois. At the age of seven years, his parents enrolled him in a six-week beginner class for learning to play the accordion. His first teacher was George Stefani, who supervised the young accordionist for nine years. Beginning with studying classical music, he soon encouraged the young musician to explore other musical genres. He went on to study piano and clarinet, as well as music theory, harmony, and composition.
At 17, Frank won the first prize in the 1948 Chicago Musicland Festival, and a guest performance with the Chicago Pops Orchestra. His success sent him on a professional music career, establishing a trio and touring the Midwestern states. In the early 1950s he married and moved to Los Angeles, California.
Creating a new band, Marocco played hotels and clubs in Las Vegas, Nevada, Lake Tahoe, Nevada and Palm Springs, California. He later began working in Hollywood, where television studios and movie production companies provided him a successful career.
In the 1960s, Frank recorded a solo album released by Verve Records, worked together with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, and performed on the world-famous album Pet Sounds. He performed on a USO tour in the Pacific, appearing onstage with Bob Hope, and also played in the Les Brown big band, during six Love Boat cruises. He performed and recorded in collaboration with hundreds of world-famous jazz musicians, classical artists and conductors during his career.
Marocco wrote and arranged music for solo, duet, and orchestra in a wide variety of musical styles, including jazz, popular standards, international, Latin, religious, and classical. He was the musical director and conductor of an annual music camp, the Frank Marocco Accordion Event, that brought together over 50 accordionists from around the U.S. and Canada.
Accordionist Frank Marocco passed away on March 3, 2012 at his home in San Fernando Valley, California from complications following hip replacement surgery. He was 81 years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Motley, Jr. was born December 30, 1923 in Cheraw, South Carolina and took trumpet lessons when he was young from Dizzy Gillespie, who was from the same town. He developed a technique of playing two trumpets at the same time, becoming known as “Dual Trumpet” and “Two Horn” Motley. Getting a degree in mechanical engineering at South Carolina State College, before joining the military, he performed in the Navy Band entertaining troops in the Pacific. After the end of the war he played in nightclubs in New York City before settling in Washington, D.C. and forming his own band in 1949.
He recorded extensively for Lillian Claiborne’s DC Records from 1951, and many of his recordings were licensed to other labels including RCA Victor and Specialty. His band, the Motley Crew, included singer and keyboardist Curley Bridges, drummer Thomas E. “TNT” Tribble, and vocalist Elsie “Angel Face” Kenley.
From 1952, he played mainly in Canada, marrying and moving to Toronto in 1955. However, he continued to perform and record in the United States. His biggest commercial success came in 1963, when his version of William Bell’s song Any Other Way, recorded with vocalist Jackie Shane for a small Boston label.
Disbanded the Motley Crew in 1966 he formed a new band in Toronto, the Hitch-Hikers, at first with Shane and then with singer Earle The Mighty Pope Heedram. The band broke up in 1970 but he continued to perform with another new band, the Bridge Crossings, until the mid 1980s. With his health declining he retired to Durham, North Carolina, where he continued to play in local dance bands. Trumpeter Frank Motley, who also sang, passed awayin Durham in 1998, aged 74.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billy Mackel was born John William Mackel on December 28, 1912 in Baltimore, Maryland and played banjo early in his career, but like many banjoists of his time he switched to guitar.
He led a band early in the 1940s, then joined Lionel Hampton in 1944 and spent the next thirty years with him. In the 1940s he also recorded with Milt Buckner, Arnett Cobb, Herbie Fields, and others, and worked with Billy Williams in the 1960s.
Guitarist Billy Mackel, who played left~handed and recorded as a leader, passed away on May 5, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Orval Crow was born December 27, 1927 in Othello, Washington but spent his childhood growing up in Kirkland, Washington, taking up the trumpet in fourth grade. When he joined the Army in 1946, he started to play brass instruments, remaining in the army until 1949. After leaving the Army, he played drums and trombone while a student at the University of Washington.
In 1950, Bill moved to New York City and within two years as a double bassist, he played with Teddy Charles and was with Stan Getz from October 1952 to the following April. He was part of Gerry Mulligan’s groups during the mid to late 1950s.
Crow joined the house band at Eddie Condon’s club in 1965 and then played with Walter Norris’s small group, which was one of the house bands at the Playboy Club in New York City in the mid~Sixties to early Seventies. From 1975 into the late 1990s he worked in theater orchestras on Broadway, where he sometimes played the tuba.
He authored a book called Jazz Anecdotes that was published by Oxford University Press in 1991. His autobiography, From Birdland to Broadway, was released by the same publisher two years later. Both were also the titles of his two albums as a leader.
As a sideman, he recorded 70 albums with Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn, Clark Terry, Marian McPartland, J. J. Johnson, Al Haig, Jimmy Cleveland, Milt Jackson, Benny Goodman, Mose Allison, Jimmy Raney, Sal Salvador, Don Elliott, Teddy Charles, Manny Albam, Joe Morello, Bob Wilber, Eddie Bert, Jay McShann, Bob Dorough, Barbara Lea, Dick Sudhalter, Phil Woods, Dick Sudhalter, Ronnell Bright, Art Simmons, Rich Pearle, Spike Robinson, Claude Williamson, and Michelle Leblanc. Bassist Bill Crow continues to perform at the age of 92.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank de la Rosa was born on December 26, 1933 in El Paso, Texas. At age twenty he served in the US Army during the Korean War from 1953-1955, earning three medals and the GI Bill. After his discharge he attended the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Fine Arts, and began playing the bass at the age of 23.
Despite his late start in music education, Frank built an extraordinary career across the globe and performances with Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Chubby Checker, Harry “Sweets” Edison, and Don Ellis, to name a few.
He was also a part of the Don Menza & His ’80s Big Band, the Don Menza Sextet, Raoul Romero And His Jazz Stars Orchestra, René Bloch And His Big Latin Band, and the Don Ellis Orchestra.
Touring with Ella Fitzgerald, de la Rosa was a member of the Tommy Flanagan Trio from 1968 to 1972. He retired as a professional musician in 2003, however, the deer, dogs, and dandelions across his five acres of land enjoyed the daily melodies from his piano, bass, and/or cello until the summer of 2019 when bassist Frank de la Rosa passed away on July 5, at his home in Washougal, Washington. He was 85.
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