Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marty Sheller was born March 15, 1940 in Newark, New Jersey. Sheller initially studied percussion, but switched to trumpet as a teenager. He played with Hugo Dickens in Harlem, and arranged for Sabu Martinez, before working with Afro-Latin percussionists such as Louie Ramirez and Frankie Malabe.
In 1962 he became a trumpeter in Mongo Santamaria’s band, and worked with Santamaria for more than forty years as a composer and arranger. He also had an extensive association with Fania Records. As their house arranger Marty worked with Joe Bataan, Ruben Blades, Willie Colon, Larry Harlow, Hector Lavoe, and Ismael Miranda.
Outside of Fania, he arranged for musicians, not limited to, George Benson, David Byrne, Jon Faddis, Giovanni Hidalgo, T.S. Monk, Idris Muhammad, Manny Oquendo, Dave Pike, Tito Puente, Shirley Scott, Woody Shaw, Lew Soloff, and Steve Turre.
In the 2000s, he led his own ensemble, which included the sidemen Chris Rogers, Joe Magnarelli, Sam Burtis, Bobby Porcelli, Bob Franceschini, Oscar Hernández, Ruben Rodriquez, Vince Cherico, and Steve Berrios.
Trumpeter and arranger Marty Sheller, who plays primarily in latin jazz idioms, continues to pursue his musical endeavors.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Voltaire “Volly” De Faut was born March 14, 1904 in Little Rock, Arkansas but his family moved to Chicago, Illinois when he was six. He started out studying the violin, however, by fourteen switched to the clarinet and saxophone.
At seventeen he had his first professional gig at a summer resort and the next year he was playing with Sig Meyers. During the early 1920s he spent time in the New Orleans Rhythm Kings before joining Art Kassel. He also played with The Bucktown Five.
His first recordings were made with Muggsy Spanier in 1924 followed by his recording with Jelly Roll Morton the next year. The late 1920s saw Volly playing with Merritt Brunies and Jean Goldkette, and played for a time in Detroit, Michigan.
Around the end of the decade De Faut held several positions in theater orchestras in Chicago, while working as a studio musician. He started his own dog breeding business but abandoned it to join the military and play in bands there.
He returned to Chicago in the middle of the 1940s, playing with Bud Jacobson and working extensively on the local jazz scene. In the 1950s he moved to Davenport, Iowa but returned to Chicago in 1965. In the last two decades of his life De Faut worked often with Art Hodes, including on many of his recordings for Delmark Records.
Clarinetist and saxophonist Volly De Faut transitioned on May 29, 1973 in Chicago Heights, Illinois.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Sherwood Haggart was born March 13, 1914 in New York City, New York. He became a member of the Bob Crosby Band in 1935 and composed and arranged Big Noise from Winnetka, My Inspiration, What’s New?, and South Rampart Street Parade. He remained with the band until its 1942 dissolution. He went on to work as a session musician, with much of his time spent at Decca Records.
He recorded with Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Ella Fitzgerald and his arrangements can be heard on Fitzgerald’s album Lullabies of Birdland. Haggart also starred in several commercials for L&M cigarettes on the radio program Gunsmoke.
He and Yank Lawson formed the Lawson~Haggart Band, and together led the World’s Greatest Jazz Band from 1968 until 1978. Over the next two decades he appeared at jazz festivals. Double bassist, composer and arranger Bob Haggart, who was associated with dixieland and swing, transitioned on December 2, 1998 in Venice, Florida.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Adam Cohen was born on March 12, 1963 in Queens, New York but would soon find Los Angeles, California home when his parents moved to the West Coast. His musical foundation was built upon the piano lessons introduced to him at the age of six by his father Irwin, an accomplished pianist & composer. However, it would be the sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire, The Beatles, Chicago, Tower of Power, and Stanley Clarke that lured him to the low end. Add the influences of Ray Brown, Charles Mingus, Paul Chambers, and Dave Holland and lessons on both the upright and electric bass commenced.
Playing both acoustic & electric bass, Cohen has led him to work with Ernie Watts, Ray Charles, The New York Voices, Phil Upchurch, Taylor Dayne, Engelbert Humperdinck, David Benoit, Maxine Nightingale, Eric Benet, and Mark Isham, among others.
Having found his voice, he has become a ubiquitous presence on the Los Angeles scene and a leader in his own right with two albums, Gig Bag and Ritual, along with many compositions to his credit. Bassist Adam Cohen continues to move forward and reach upward, teaching privately and fueling his desire to make a positive impact on the musical situation at hand.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jackie Mills was born on March 11, 1922 in New York City and he first learned guitar before picking up drums when he was ten years old. He played in the swing groups of Charlie Barnet and Boyd Raeburn in the 1940s. He followed with gigs with Jazz at the Philharmonic, Gene Norman, Babe Russin, Mannie Klein, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Rene Touzet, Sonny Criss, Andre Previn, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, and Red Norvo.
In the late 1940s Jackie became interested in bebop and began playing in a style influenced by Max Roach. He began playing with Harry James in 1949, working with him through the late 1950s.
Mills recorded as a session musician during the 50s, working with artists such as Gerry Wiggins and Anita O’Day. In his later career, Mills recorded occasionally, including with Freddie Roach in 1966 and Dodo Marmarosa in 1978, but was chiefly active as a record producer and co-founder of Choreo Records, doing production work for Columbia, MGM, Mainstream, Capitol and Liberty Records.
In 1969, Mills acquired Larrabee Sound Studios from its co-founders Gerry Goffin and Carole King. As owner and operator through the mid-1980s, the studio was acquired by his son Kevin.
Drummer Jackie Mills transitioned on March 22, 2010 in Beaumont, California.