Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Joseph William Yukl was born on March 5, 1909 in Los Angeles, California and  learned to play violin before switching to trombone as a teenager.

Yukl relocated to New York City in 1927 where he took a position playing in radio bands for CBS, and worked with Red Nichols and The Dorsey Brothers. During 1934 he played with Joe Haymes, then with the Dorseys once again.

Through the end of the decade he played with Louis Armstrong, Ray McKinley, Bing Crosby, Ben Pollack, Frankie Trumbauer, and Ted Fio Rito. The 1940s saw Joe working as a session musician for studio recordings in Los Angeles, California and for film and television.

He played with Wingy Manone and Charlie LaVere in the 1940s. He appears in the film Rhythm Inn in 1951 and is heard playing trombone in the 1953 movie The Glenn Miller Story.

Trombonist Joe Yukl transitioned on March 16, 1981 at the age of 72 in his hometown.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ann Burton was born Johanna Rafalowicz on March 4, 1933 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. When she was 3 years old her mother married a diamond worker and in 1938 her surname was changed to her stepfather’s and she became Johanna de Paauw, which was her official name until 1971, when she again changed it back to Rafalowicz.

During World War II her family faced Jewish persecution under the German occupation and she went into hiding while her mother and stepfather survived the Nazi concentration camps. However, the family became disrupted when her stepparents were deprived of parental power. Johanna, who had Polish nationality, acquired Dutch nationality in 1957.

Johanna never had singing lessons, but she had listened to American singers like Doris Day, Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Later, Billie Holiday and Shirley Horn influenced her. She wanted to get into the music world and so in about 1955 she took the name Ann Burton inspired by the Welsh actor Richard Burton.

Ann Burton began her career as a singer with a quintet in Luxemburg. She sang with bandleader Johnny Millstonford and performed in clubs with the orchestra of Ted Powder for American soldiers in Germany.

In the summer of 1958 she sang in the quartet of pianist Pia Beck in Scheveningen and in 1960 they toured with saxophonist Piet Noordijk in Spain and Morocco. Returning home she continued singing and in 1965 she made an EP for Decca Records with the nl:Frans Elsen Trio. Later she joined Ramses Shaffy’s group Shaffy Chantant.

The late sixties saw Ann getting noticed by  John J. Vis, the director of the record company Artone, who produced her first album Blue Burton in 1967. She became popular and the album received an Edison Award in 1969. A few more records in 1969 and 1972 were released in collaboration with John Vis.

In 1973, she toured Japan, where she became the most popular jazz singer, second only to Ella Fitzgerald. She made numerous albums with Masahiko Sato and Ken McCarthy and others. In the late seventies she worked in New York, where she made several albums, some of which were with Grady Tate and Buster Williams with singer Helen Merrill producing the albums. For “New York State of Mind” Burton also received an Edison award.

In the eighties she founded her own record label, Burtone, that produced her albums. During the period 1986–1988 she taught at the Amsterdam Conservatory.

Vocalist Ann Burton, who recorded twenty-one albums, transitioned at the age of 56 due to throat cancer on November 29, 1989 in Amsterdam.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Fernand Coppieters was born in Brussels, Belgium on March 3, 1905. He took up piano in his youth and also played the Hammond organ. His first professional work was with the ensemble Bistrouille ADO in 1920 at age 15. Following this, he played in the Red Mills Ragtime Band and the Rhythmic Novelty Dance Orchestra.

Leaving Belgium for France he landed a place in Fud Candrix’s ensemble in France and Holland. Returning to Brussels in 1929, he played in a trio with René Compère and again with Candrix. Soon after this, he joined the 16 Baker Boys, led by Robert de Kers and, later, Oscar Aleman.

In the early 1930s, he accompanied Josephine Baker on tours of Europe, then worked with Roland Dorsay, Candrix once again, and Willie Lewis. In the 1940s and 1950s, he recorded as a leader and worked as a house pianist for Radio Schaerbeek, an independent Belgian radio station.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, he recorded several albums on Hammond organ, for Fontana Records and Philips Records. Pianist and organist Fernand Coppieters, who also played accordion, saxophone, and violin, transitioned on September 9, 1981 in Brussels.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

LaDonna Smith was born on March 2, 1951 in Birmingham, Alabama. She learned to play violin and went on to perfect viola and piano. Since 1974 she has been performing free improvisational music with musicians Davey Williams, Leland Davis, Michael Evans, Gunther Christmann, Anne Lebaron, Derek Bailey, Eugene Chadbourne, Misha Feigin, Michael Evans, David Sait, Jack Wright, John Russell, Sergey Letov, Toshi Makihara, Andrew Dewar and many other world major improvisers.

As a performer, she has toured the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, Siberia, Korea, India, China and Japan. She produced concerts and festivals in Alabama and the Southeast, including the Birmingham Improv Festival and The Improvisor Festival. She serves on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Improvised Music (I.S.I.M.).

In 1976, Smith co-founded TransMuseq Records with Davey Williams. She is editor-in-chief and publisher of The Improvisor magazine which began in 1980 as an extension of The Improvisor’s Network, a grass-roots organization in New York City that attempted to connect improvising musicians across America. She is a member of the Fresh-Dirt collective (Alabama Surrealism).

Avant garde violinist, violist, and pianist LaDonna Smith, who has recorded 37 albums, continues to perform and record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Barrett Deems was born March 1, 1914 in Springfield, Illinois. He worked in bands led by Jimmy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Red Norvo, and Muggsy Spanier.

He performed the drum solo during a scene on the back of the bus in the 1956 film High Society. The movie’s star, Bing Crosby, introduces the band members, including Deems, who then performs a short drum solo. Louis Armstrong and His All Stars play the song Now You Has Jazz.

He recorded three albums, Barrett Deems Big Band, Deemus and Barrett Deems and his WFL. Drummer Barrett Deems, who married twice, transitioned from pneumonia in Chicago, Illinois at the age of 84 on September 15, 1998.

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