Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bent Jædig, born September 28, 1935 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He first studied clarinet before playing saxophone. In the 1950s, he settled in Germany and led a band with trombonist Rudi Fuesers, later joining another band with trombonist Peter Herbolzheimer in Munich, Germany.
By the 1960s, he returned to Denmark and worked with trumpeter Allan Botschinsky and pianist Bent Axen, with whom he recorded for Denmark’s Debut label. Bent would go on to play with the Dollar Brand Quintet which included Don Cherry. As a side-man he was constantly in demand and worked with Tete Montoliu, Jimmy Woode, Philly Joe Jones/Dizzy Reece, and Louis Hjulmand.
Jædig recorded his first album as a leader in 1967 titled, Danish Jazzman, with Axen, Botschinsky, Dusko Goykovich, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Alex Riel. He would later form a trio, played in a duo and recorded live shows in 2002 which were compiled for a release from Timeless Records.
In the Seventies and 1980s he worked with Wild Bill Davison, Art Farmer, Stan Getz, the Thad Jones Big Band, Duke Jordan, Horace Parlan, Sahib Shihab, and Ernie Wilkins Almost Big Band. He was also a member of the Erling Kroner Tentet, played in the Danish Radio Big Band, and recorded on the Miles Davis album Aura. In 1987, Jædig was a member of Pierre Dørge’s New Jungle Orchestra.
At the end of the 1990s he was performing in a quintet. Tenor saxophonist and flutist Bent Jædig transitioned on June 9, 2004. Saxophonist Charles Davis recorded the album Charles Davis Plays the Music of Bent Jædig in 2006.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Samuel Benskin was born in The Bronx, New York on September 27, 1922 and made his professional debut around 1940 as piano accompanist to singer and guitarist Bardu Ali. He worked throughout the 1940s with among other jazz musicians Stuff Smith, Benny Morton and Don Redman. The 1950s witnessed Sammy leading his own piano trio, appearing as a soloist and accompanying singers Roy Hamilton, Dinah Washington and Al Hibbler. In 1954 he also joined a group, The Three Flames, which also featured Tiger Haynes.
By the end of the decade with a band credited as The Spacemen, Sammy recorded an instrumental, The Clouds, written and produced by Julius Dixson for his Alton record label. A departure from jazz, the song’s original vocals were removed and presented as an instrumental. It went to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, and No. 41 on the pop chart. The song was the first number one on any chart released by an African-American owned independent record label, predating Motown’s first No. 1 by a year.
From the 1960s Benskin worked primarily as a vocal coach, arranger and producer. In 1986, he recorded an album in Paris, France for Black & Blue Records, These Foolish Songs. Pianist Sammy Benskin transitioned in Teaneck, New Jersey on August 26, 1992 at 69.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Romano Bruno Mussolini was born on September 26, 1927 in Villa Carpena, Forlì,Italy. He was the fourth child and youngest son of Il Duce, Benito Mussolini. He studied music as a child, playing classical pieces with his father on the violin. After World War II, he started playing jazz under the alias Romano Full.
By the mid-1950s, he formed a trio and in 1956 released a self-titled record featuring Lilian Terry on vocals and trumpeter Nunzio Rotondo on RCA Records. The Sixties saw him form the Romano Mussolini All Stars, which became one of Italy’s foremost jazz bands.
The All Stars recorded a well-received record Jazz Allo Studio 7 in 1963 with At the Santa Tecla following a year later. Romano’s band toured internationally with Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Helen Merrill and Chet Baker, among others. In the 1990s he recorded two more albums, Perfect Alibi and Soft and Swing.
His playing style has been described as “like a slightly melancholic Oscar Peterson. Occasionally inspired, he was always efficient; he made the refrains run on time.
Pianist Romano Mussolini, who was also a painter and film producer, transitioned on February 3, 2006, at the age of 78, in a hospital in Rome, Italy from heart problems.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roland Alexander was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 25, 1935 and grew up with his parents and sister, Gloria, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music composition from the Boston Conservatory in 1958.
A prolific composer and arranger, Alexander wrote and played for many of the better known bands in Boston during the 1950s, associating himself with Sabby Lewis, Preston ‘Sandy’ Sandiford, Richie Lowery, Jaki Byard and many more. He co-led a group called the Boston All Stars that featured trumpeter Joe Gordon, and after Joe Gordon left to play with Dizzy Gillespie’s band, he was replaced by Wajid Lateef (Crazy Wilbur Lucaw), and Gordon Wooly.
In 1956 he recorded High Step as a sideman with bassist Paul Chambers before moving to New York City the year he graduated from the conservatory. In addition to a 1961 and 1978 release as a leader, he played and recorded with John Coltrane, Howard McGhee, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes, Philly Joe Jones, Blue Mitchell, Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp, and Mal Waldron.
Post bop saxophonist Roland Alexander, who in addition to playing tenor and soprano saxophone was also a pianist, transitioned on June 14, 2006.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rebecca Kilgore was born September 24, 1949 and grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts honing her voice. By the age of thirty she left the East Coast for the West, settling in Portland, Oregon. She began her music career fronting an area swing band dubbed the Wholly Cats and recorded a 1982 LP titled Doggin’ Around. Following the group’s 1984 breakup, she formed her own unit, the Rebecca Kilgore Quintet, and quickly became a mainstay of the Northwest jazz scene. In 1989 she released the cassette-only I Hear Music.
She has recorded twenty-two albums as a leader, performing and/or recording a total of 21 with jazz pianist Dave Frishberg, trombonist Dan Barrett, tenor saxophonist Harry Allen, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, BED, the Wholly Cats and numerous other musicians. In 2010 she was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame
Vocalist Rebecca Kilgore, who has been slated as one of the best interpreters of the Great American Songbook, continues to perform locally in her Northwest home as well as worldwide at jazz festivals, cruises and other venues.
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