Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Donald Neff Bagley was born on July 18, 1927 in Salt Lake City, Utah and received formal training on the double bass. He went on to study in Los Angeles, California and played in 1945 with Shorty Sherock and Wingy Manone, and in 1948 with Dick Pierce.
During the early Fifties from 1950 to 1953, and sporadically thereafter, Bagley played with Stan Kenton. HIs time with Kenton, A Study for Bass by Bill Russo and Bags by Bill Holman were written to feature Bagley’s playing. By 1954 he was fronting his own ensembles. His session work between 1950 and 1952, Don worked extensively with Nat King Cole, Maynard Ferguson, and Dexter Gordon. He played in Europe with Zoot Sims, Lars Gullin, Frank Rosolino, and Åke Persson. He would go on to work with Les Brown, Jimmie Rowles, Shelly Manne, Pete Fountain and Phil Woods. In 1957 and 1958, he recorded three albums under his own name.
The Sixties saw him playing with Ben Webster and Julie London. Into the 1970s and 1980s he worked with Burt Bacharach while composing and arranging for film and television, including the scores to Mama’s Dirty Girls, The Manhandlers, The Swinging Barmaids, The Student Body, Young Lady Chatterley and Sacred Ground.
Double bassist, composer and arranger Don Bagley transitioned of natural causes on July 26, 2012 at the age of 85.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Abraham Laboriel López was born on July 17, 1947 in Mexico City, Mexco into a talented family with a rock singer brother and a sister who is a singer, film and television actress. A classically trained guitarist, he switched to bass guitar while studying at the Berklee College of Music, graduating in 1972.
It was during this time that he learned the importance of versatility as a musician. Henry Mancini encouraged Laboriel to move to Los Angeles, California, to pursue a recording career, which he did in 1976. Though he struggled to find work for two years, he found his first gig on a road tour with Olivia Newton-John. After a consequent European tour with Al Jarreau, he settled into a full-time studio career in Los Angeles.
He would go on to work and record with Al Jarreau, Billy Cobham, Freddie Hubbard, George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Lalo Schifrin, Gary Birton, Stan Getz, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Quincy Jones, Randy Crawford, Dave Grusin, and Umberto Tozzi as well as Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Barbra Striesand, Madonna, Andre Crouch, Herb Alpert Minnie Riperton, Barry Manilow, and many others.
Abraham was a founding member of the bands Friendship and Koinonia. With the latter he recorded four albums. In addition he recorded several solo albums on which he recruited a cast of musicians that included Alex Acuña, Al Jarreau, Jim Keltner, Phillip Bailey, Ron Kenoly, his son Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums, and others.
In 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the Berklee College of Music. Electric bassist Abraham Laboriel has played on over 4000 recording sessions, is ranked No. 42 on Bass Player magazine’s list of The 100 Greatest Bass Players of All Time, and continues to record and perform as a member of the band Open Hands with Justo Almario, Greg Mathieson, and Bill Maxwell.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Previte was born July 16, 1951 in Niagara Falls, New York. He started playing early but went on to earn a degree in economics from the University at Buffalo, New York where he also studied percussion.
Moving to New York City in 1979 he began professional relationships with John Zorn, Wayne Horvitz, and Elliott Sharp. While Previte is a talented drummer he has also received critical acclaim for his exceptional abilities as a composer and orchestrator. His compositions are often tightly arranged, although they leave room for significant amounts of improvisation. Additionally, Previte often uses unusual instrumentation and also draws on many non-jazz musics for his compositions.
As a performer much of his work is also improvisational. He has recorded three dozen albums as a leader or co-leader and as a sideman played on 85 recording sessions across numerous genres of music. Drummer, composer and orchestrator Bobby Previte, who has delved into the jazz, avant~garde and rock genres as a leader, continues to expand his career.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Olivia Meyer was born on July 15, 1990 in Rochester, New York and first encountered her father’s tenor saxophone when looking under his bedroom dresser. There she discovered a large black case covered with dust containing a Mark VI. Her fathe rnot only gifted her the saxophone but once she played it was smitten and the decision to pursue the saxophone was cemented. They would go to the public library, check out the maximum number of cds and listen to them together.
At the age of nine, Olivia played and studied in the programs provided by the inner city schools she attended. She began private lessons in classical and jazz piano and ultimately jazz and classical saxophone. By fifteen, she was splitting her time between the School of the Arts and the Eastman School of Music, studying music history, theory, jazz composition, and classical and jazz saxophone.
As a member of the Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra, she also worked and studied regularly with visiting artists Eric Alexander, Peter Bernstein, Paquito D’Rivera, Victor Goines, Wycliffe Gordon, Vincent Herring, Pat Labarbera, Ralph Lalama, Joe Locke, Gerry Niewood, and Grant Stewart.
After graduating from the School of the Arts, she received a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She has played gigs in and around Rochester, and while in Boston she headlined a quartet as a part of the new “Birth of La Femme” series at Wally’s Jazz Café in Boston. Tenor saxophonist Olivia Meyer, has yet to record her debut album, is currently a Brand, Sales and Marketing Associate at Jazz At Lincoln Center.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
This Jazz Voyager is still being very cautious about masking indoors and social distancing as the new B variants are cropping up around the world and are now hitting the shores of America. In light of these occurrences, today we are going to listen to the 1955 Ethel Ennis album recorded titled Lullabies For Losers that was released the same year on the Jubilee record label.
The cover was designed by Si Leichman, the liner notes were written by Mort Goode, and the photography by Charles Varon.
Track List | 37:32
- Love For Sale (Cole Porter) ~ 3:19
- Dreamer~Dreamer (Irving Caesar, Oskar Strauss) ~ 4:30
- Blue Prelude (Gordon Jenkins, Joe Bishop) ~ 3:00
- Off Shore (Leo Diamond, Michael H. Goldsen) ~ 3:55
- Casually (Alan McCarthy, Richard Freitas) ~ 3:57
- Hey Jacques (Eden Ahnez, Wayne Shanklin) ~ 3:03
- Lullaby For Losers (Robert Stringer) ~ 3:00
- Say It Ain’t So, Joe (Al Frisch, Kathleen G. Twomey, Fred Wise) ~ 2:58
- You Better Go Now (Bickley Reichner / Robert Graham) ~ 3:29
- Blue Willow (Vic Harrington) ~ 3:23
- Bon Voyage (DeSylva-Brown-Henderson) ~ 4:18
- Ethel Ennis ~ Vocal
- Hank Jones ~ Piano
- Eddie Biggs ~ Guitar
- Abie Baker ~ Double Bass
- Kenny Clarke ~ Drums
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