Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edwin Calvin Newborn (was born on born April 27, 1933 in Whiteville, Tennessee and is the brother of pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. with whom he recorded between 1953 and 1958. They formed an R&B band, with their father Phineas Newborn Sr. on drums and Tuff Green on bass, trumpeter Willie Mitchell and tenor saxophonist Ben Branch. The group was the house band at the Plantation Inn Club in West Memphis, Arkansas, from 1947 until 1951 and recorded as B. B. King’s band on his first recordings in 1949, and also the Sun Records sessions in 1950.
Calvin gave guitars lessons to Howlin’ Wolf and was friends with Elvis Presley, who frequented his gig at the Plantation Inn Club two nights a week. Presley also used to eat at the Newborns’ house and browse their music store for gospel records. The group left West Memphis in 1951 to tour with Jackie Brenston as the Delta Cats in support of the record Rocket 88. It was considered by many to be the first rock and roll record ever recorded, and was the first Billboard number one record for Chess Records.
Following his R&B period he transitioned into jazz and played with Earl Hines starting in 1959. The early Sixties saw him touring with Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Forrest, Wild Bill Davis, Al Grey, Freddie Roach, Booker Little, George Coleman. Frank Strozier, and Louis Smith. Newborn also worked with Ray Charles, Count Basie, Hank Crawford, Sun Ra, Lou Donaldson, Bobby Hutcherson and David “Fathead” Newman among others. His 1980 album Centerpiece hit No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard jazz albums chart, but much of his earlier material was not reissued on CD until 2005.
Since the 1970s he remained mostly in Memphis, Tennessee, where he played regularly in local clubs well into the 1990s. Guitarist Calvin Newborn currently resides in Jacksonville, FL and continued to perform throughout Northeast Florida until his transition on December 1, 2018, aged 85.
Sponsored By
#preserving genius
More Posts: guitar
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Glauco Masetti was born on April 19, 1922 in Milan, Italy and was an autodidact on reed instruments as well as a classically trained violinist, attending the Milan and Turin conservatories.
In the late 1940s he worked with Gil Cuppini for the first time, an association that would continue well into the latter part of the 1960s. He worked often as a session musician in the first half of the 1950s, with Gianni Basso and Oscar Valdambrini among others.
He led his own ensemble from 1955, and played with Eraldo Volonté and Chet Baker. In the Sixties, he also played with Giorgio Gaslini during that decade. Clarinetist and alto saxophonist Glauco Masetti passed away on May 27, 2001 in Milan.
Sponsored By
#preserving genius
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Knobby Totah was born Nabil Marshall Totah on April 5, 1930 in Ramallah, Palestine. He emigrated to the United States in 1944 and began playing the bass in 1953. He first worked in Japan with Toshiko Akiyoshi and Hampton Hawes in 1953 and ‘54, then with Bobby Scott , Johnny Smith and with Charlie Parker, Gene Krupa, Woody Herman and Eddie Costa.
From 1956 he played with Zoot Sims and Al Cohn, with whom he played with until 1959. Around 1957 Knobby performed with Tal Farlow, Bobby Jaspar and George Wallington. From 1958-1961 he worked with Herbie Mann and with Slide Hampton, then with Bobby Hackett, Teddy Wilson, Stephanie Nakasian, Johnnie Ray and with Gene Krupa through the Sixties and in 1973, played on his last album.
Totah recorded two trio albums as a leader in the mid-Eighties and late Nineties, working with Mike Longo and Ray Mosca, in addition to his recording and performing as a sideman.
Double bassist Knobby Totah passed away on June 7, 2012 in York, Pennsylvania.
Sponsored By
#preserving genius
More Posts: bass
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Milton Aubrey “Brew” Moore was born March 26, 1924 in Indianola, Mississippi where his formal musical training began at twelve, first on trombone, and then clarinet before switching to tenor saxophone. Inspired by the style of Lester Young, he even held his horn at the same unorthodox 120 degree angle. He got his first professional experience playing in a Texas territorial band the summer before entering college.
Moore left the University of Mississippi in his first year to pursue a performing career, with stints in New Orleans, Louisiana, Memphis, Tennessee and twice in New York City between 1942-47. It was in New York that he first heard the new music called bebop. Combining Young’s and Charlie Parker’s style he was able to create his own thing. Returning to New York in 1948, he became a fixture on the city’s vibrant jazz scene, cutting his first album Brew Moore and His Playboys as a leader on the Savoy Records label.
He went on to work with Machito’s orchestra, Claude Thornhill’s Big Band, the Kai Winding sextet, Stan Getz and George Wallington among others. In 1949 he joined Getz, Zoot Sims and Al Cohn, three of the four brothers from Woody Herman’s Second Herd plus Allen Eager and recorded the album The Brothers on Prestige Records. The early 50s saw Brew gigging with Bird and other beboppers of note before leaving New York in 1954 for the West Coast, settling eventually in San Francisco, California. Fitting well into the beat generation culture, however by 1959 the heavy drinking that had early on given him his nickname took its toll, and he withdrew from the scene.
Resurfacing in Copenhagen, Denmark, he would, with the exception of three years in New York from 1967 to 1970, continue to perform there for the rest of his life. He teamed with Kenny Drew, Sahib Shihab, Alex Riel and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen among others. Following a trip home to settle his late father’s affairs and coming into a substantial inheritance, he fell down a flight of stairs in Tivoli Gardens after a characteristically bibulous night and suffered the injuries that caused his death. Tenor saxophonist Brew Moore passed away on August 19, 1973.
Sponsored By
www.whatissuitetabu.com
#preserving genius
More Posts: saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gene Taylor was born Calvin Eugene Taylor on March 19, 1929 in Toledo, Ohio. Beginning his career in Detroit, Michigan he worked with Horace Silver from 1958 until 1963, then joined the Blue Mitchell Quintet, with whom he recorded and performed until 1965.
From 1966 until 1968, he toured and recorded with Nina Simone, including a Taylor composition she recorded titled Why? (The King of Love is Dead), written following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He then began teaching music in New York City public schools.
Working with Judy Collins from 1968 until 1976, Gene made numerous television appearances accompanying Simone and Collins. He went on to record with Junior Cook, Barry Harris, Coleman Hawkins, Junior Mance, Eddie Jefferson, Eric Kloss and Duke Pearson.
Double-bassist and songwriter Gene Taylor never led a recording session before passing away on December 22, 2001 in Sarasota, Florida where he had been living since 1990.
Sponsored By
www.whatissuitetabu.com
#preserving genius
More Posts: bass