Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Hanley Casey was born in Johnson County, Illinois on February 11, 1909 and learned to play banjo and guitar as a child, playing both in regional ensembles in the Midwest. He didn’t pick up the bass until he was twenty and continued as a guitarist for some time after.
The mid-1930s saw him playing in NBC radio ensembles and working with Wingy Manone. In 1939 Bob joined Muggsy Spanier’s Ragtimers band but the group soon split, after which he played with Charlie Spivak, Brad Gowans, Eddie Condon, Miff Mole, and Joe Marsala. He played extensively on radio with several of these ensembles.
Casey was also a prolific session bassist, recording with Wild Bill Davison, Bobby Hackett, Cliff Jackson, Max Kaminsky, Eddie Edwards, Bud Freeman, Pee Wee Russell, Georg Brunis, George Wettling, Ralph Sutton, Joe Sullivan, and Boyce Brown in the 1940s and 1950s.
Relocating to Florida in 1957, he played with the Dukes of Dixieland. By the 1970s he was playing only occasionally. Double bassist Bob Casey transitioned on April 9, 1986, in Marion, Illinois.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Butch Morris was born Lawrence Douglas Morris on February 10, 1947 in Long Beach, California. Before beginning his musical career, he served in the U.S. Army as a medic in Germany, Japan and Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He came to attention with saxophonist David Murray’s groups in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
>Morris led a group called Orchestra SLANG. The group features drummer Kenny Wollesen, alto saxophonist Jonathon Haffner, trumpeter Kirk Knuffke and others. He performed and presented regularly as part of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, held annually in New York City. He wrote most of the incidental music for the 1989 TV show, A Man Called Hawk, which starred Avery Brooks, with whom he co-wrote the theme music, along with Stanley Clarke. He also played with well-known artist and would-be drummer A.R. Penck in 1990.
The originator of Conduction (a term borrowed from physics), a type of structured free improvisation where Butch directs and conducts an improvising ensemble with a series of hand and baton gestures.
Cornetist, composer and conductor Butch Morris, known for pioneering his structural improvisation method Conduction, transitioned from lung cancer on January 29, 2013, at the age of 65 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
B.J. Papa was born on February 9, 1936 in Mobile, Alabama and as a child in the 1940s he was listening to all kinds of jazz and blues on the radio. Drafted into the Army in 1954 he became a medic and was stationed in San Francisco, California at Letterman Hospital in the Presidio. However, he ended up spending much of his service time playing on Army ball teams. By the time he turned 19 he found himself intrigued with the jazz bands booked into the Army noncommissioned officers clubs.
After his discharge from the service in 1956 Papa stayed in town and began saxophone lessons. He also made his first forays into the heart of the bustling Fillmore Street jazz community and would show up to listen and learn at the famous after-hours jams at Jimbo’s Bop City.
Over the course of his fifty year career Papa became a North Beach institution mentoring dozens of young cats making their transition from student to professional musician. He played with the biggest names in jazz to come through the city as well as passionate laymen sans pedigree.
Settling in at Jazz At Pearl’s, one of the few remaining jazz clubs that still possessed an air of authenticity before closing its doors, for thirteen years he shared the stage with an eclectic, enthusiastic audience nightly.
Pianist B.J. Papa, who always fed on and drew from the energy of the audience but has no recordings on line, transitioned on August 31, 2008.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Crickett Smith was born on February 8, 1881 in Emporia, Kansas, the child of Tennessee Exodusters. His professional career began in childhood, performing in Nathaniel Clark Smith’s Picaninny Band before moving into minstrel troupes, vaudeville and cabaret.
In 1913-1914, he made several early recordings with James Reese Europe’s group, the Clef Club Society Orchestra. Between 1914 and 1919, he performed in the Ford Dabney Orchestra, the resident band at Florenz Ziegfeld’s Broadway cabaret, Midnight Frolics. Between 1917-1919, they produced several dozen phonographs.
By 1919 Smith had relocated to Paris, France playing with Louis Mitchell’s Jazz Kings until 1924. The group recorded for Pathe Records. He became the leader of Mitchell’s group in 1923. He went on to tour France, Spain and Russia with his own bands from 1925 to 1933. However, during the Depression, he spent nine years in Southeast Asia, working with Herb Flemming, Leon Abbey, and Teddy Weatherford, mostly in Bombay and Batavia. In 1936, he recorded with a group called the Symphonians.
Around 1943 cornetist and trumpeter Crickett Smith, who played jazz blues and ragtime, returned to New York City and the following year transitioned on August 30, 1944.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Barry Sweig was born on February 7, 1942 in Detroit, Michigan. His mother loved music and taught her son to clap on the 2 & 4 as a toddler. He received a ukulele for his fifth birthday, played violin from the age of eight until he was eighteen, but bought himself a guitar for ten dollars when he was 15. His first recording session was at age 17, at Capitol Records.
Drafted in the Army in 1964 Sweig was assigned to NORAD Band where he got the opportunity to study with guitarist Johnny Smith. After his discharge he joined Buddy Rich’s band and after recording an album with Sammy Davis Jr. that led to him joining the latter’s band. Touring with Davis ended fourteen months later and he settled in Los Angeles, California and broke into the music scene where he performed and recorded for a host of who’s who vocalists and musicians.
He played his final gig at The Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach. Guitarist Barry Sweig, who taught at UCLA, USC, and the University of Texas, El Paso, transitioned on March 15, 2020 of complications from Crohn’s disease.
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