Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Patrick Cairns “Spike” Hughes was born October 19, 1908 in London, England and spent his childhood mostly with his mother, a psychiatrist who was involved in extensive travel in France and Italy, as well as a more settled period of education at Perse School in Cambridge. By 1923 when he was 15 he spent an extended period in Vienna, Austria studying composition with Egon Wellesz.

He began writing his first music criticism for The Times of London and heard his first jazz at the Weinberg Bar, Weihburggasse, a band led by trumpeter Arthur Briggs. Returning to the UK in 1926, Hughes had a solo cello sonata performed in London and wrote the incidental music for two theatre productions in Cambridge.

His interest in jazz was stimulated by the London revue Blackbirds, starring Florence Mills and Edith Wilson in 1926. It was an enthusiasm he shared with his friends, the composers Constant Lambert and William Walton and the conductor Hyam Greenbaum. He taught himself double bass using a German string bass made of tin, the spike of which led to his nickname. He formed his own jazz group in 1930 and was one of the earliest artists signed to Decca Records in England and recorded over 30 sessions between 1930 and 1933.

Originally billed as Spike Hughes and his Decca-Dents, but it was changed either to his Dance Orchestra or Three Blind Mice for smaller sessions. From 1931, he played regularly with the Jack Hylton Band and his career in jazz culminated in 1933 with a visit to New York, where he arranged three recording sessions involving members of Benny Carter’s and Luis Russell’s orchestras with Coleman Hawkins and Henry “Red” Allen from Fletcher Henderson’s band.

After the New York recordings, Spike ceased performing jazz and orchestrated and conducted shows for C B Cochran and using the pseudonym Mike wrote jazz reviews for Melody Maker, Daily Herald and The Times from 19531 to 1967. He established performance and recording opportunities for American bands in England.

He wrote radio plays accompanied by his own musical scores for the BBC, writing and broadcasting, conducting the BBC Theatre Orchestra, and for BBC Television. As a writer, regular BBC broadcaster and critic his subjects also included food and travel. He wrote sixteen composition, five film scores, fifteen books and recorded four albums,

Composer, arranger and double bassist Spike Hughes, who became better known as a broadcaster and humorous author, transitioned on February 2, 1987.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Washington was born October 18, 1907 in Brunswick, Georgia and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. He began playing trombone at age ten and attended Edward Waters College in the early-1920s.

Washington relocated to Philadelphia in 1925 and played with J.W. Pepper before moving to New York City shortly thereafter. In New York, he studied under Walter Damrosch at the New York Conservatory, playing with various ensembles in the late 1920s.

In 1931, he began playing with Don Redman, and gigged with Benny Carter in 1932 and Spike Hughes in 1933. In the mid-1930s, he played and arranged for the Mills Blue Rhythm Band and worked with Red Allen and Fletcher Henderson. From 1937 to 1943, he played in Louis Armstrong’s orchestra. After his tenure with Armstrong he moved to the West Coast, and played with Horace Henderson, Carter again, and Count Basie.

From 1947 he led his own ensemble, playing in California and the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. He and drummer Johnny Otis collaborated often, and in 1960 Washington worked with Joe Darensbourg. He did freelance work as a player and arranger later in his life. To date there is no record of his death

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Leeds “Lee” Collins was born on October 17, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a teenager he played in brass bands, including the Young Eagles, the Columbia Band, and the Tuxedo Brass Band. The 1910s saw him playing in New Orleans alongside Louis Armstrong, Papa Celestin, and Zutty Singleton.

Moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1924 he replaced Louis Armstrong in King Oliver’s band. He also played with Jelly Roll Morton but the two had disagreements and fell out when Collins claimed that Morton stole the song Fish Tail Blues from him. He returned to New Orleans, where he played on the recordings of the Jones & Collins Astoria Hot Eight in 1929. He traveled to New York City in 1930 and played with Luis Russell.

Arriving back in Chicago he played through the Thirties with Dave Peyton, the Chicago Ramblers, Johnny Dodds and Baby Dodds, Zutty Singleton, Mezz Mezzrow, Lovie Austin, and with Jimmy Bertrand in 1945. Lee played around the city during this period in his career as an accompanist to many blues singers and in nightclubs. After 1945, he led his own band at the Victory Club, on Clark Street and gigged with Bertha Hill, Kid Ory, and Art Hodes in the early Fifties.

While in Europe he performed with Mezz Mezzrow in 1951 and 1954 and in California with Joe Sullivan in 1953. In the mid-1950s he retired because of poor health

Trumpeter Lee Collins, wrote an autobiography, Oh, Didn’t He Ramble, and with the aid of his wife, Mary, who published it posthumously in 1974, transitioned in Chicago on July 3, 1960, at the age of 58.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Paul Tanner was born on October 15, 1917 in Skunk Hollow, Campbell County, Kentucky. One of six brothers, each could play an instrument and he learned to play the trombone at a reform school where his father was employed as superintendent. The brothers were playing in what he described as a strip joint when Glenn Miller heard him and offered him a position in his band.

He gained fame as a trombonist, playing with Glenn Miller and His Orchestra from 1938 to 1942, the group’s entire duration. When it disbanded, Paul joined the U.S. Army Air Force, becoming a part of the 378th Army Service Forces Band at Ft Slocum, New York. He later worked as a studio musician in Hollywood.

Tanner earned bachelor, master and doctorate degrees at the University of California, Los Angeles between 1958 and 1975. He was influential in launching UCLA’s highly regarded jazz education program in 1958. He became a professor at UCLA and authored or co-authored several academic and popular histories related to jazz.

He developed and played the Electro-Theremin, an electronic musical instrument that mimics the sound of the theremin. He can be heard performing on the opening title theme music of My Favorite Martian, on several 1966-1967 Beach Boys recordings, Good Vibrations, Wild Honey, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times, and Tune L.

Trombonist, educator and inventor Paul Tanner transitioned from pneumonia on February 5, 2013 at the age of 95. Of all the members of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, only trumpeter Ray Anthony is still living.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Fritz Pauer was born on October 14, 1943 in Vienna, Austria and began his professional playing career as a teenager, performing with Hans Koller for two years beginning in 1960 before leading his own ensembles in Berlin, Germany. In the 1960s he played with Don Byas, Booker Ervin, Dexter Gordon, Friedrich Gulda, Annie Ross and Art Farmer, recording three albums with the latter as a sideman.

As an educator he taught at the Vienna Municipal Conservatory from 1968-1970, after which he became a member of the ORF-Big Band. The 1970s saw Fritz recording as a leader as well as with Klaus Weiss and Peter Herbolzheimer.

By the mid-1980s Pauer was living in Peru for a brief period, then moved to Switzerland in 1986. Later in life education once again entered his life and he became a university professor. An early 2000s collaboration with Jay Clayton and Ed Neumeister was released as the album 3 for the Road.

Pianist, composer and bandleader Fritz Pauer transitioned on July 1, 2012.

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