Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Richard Berry was born on September 14, 1930 in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The son of a bass player in a touring dance band, he spent his early years traveling with his parents sleeping in the bass case under the bandstand when he was only a few months old. From the age of five, he took piano lessons at home in South Bend, Indiana. In high school in Cincinnati, Ohio he switched to trumpet, and played in a Midwest band led by Don Strickland, after which he served four years in the Air Force.
He studied at the Cincinnati College of Music and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts then played trumpet with the Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson orchestra. In 1961, he became one of the Duke Ellington orchestra’s first white members. After his working with Ellington, he played with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and led his own big band in New York.
In 1965 he joined The Merv Griffin Show, where he remained for fifteen years, moving to Los Angeles, California with Griffin and reforming his group as the L.A. Big Band in 1971. Among the most successful of his own 1978 recording Shortcake, an album of jazz for small groups in the Ellington style. He appeared on many albums by other musicians, including Rosemary Clooney, Scott Hamilton, Jake Hanna, and Coleman Hawkins.
He recorded four albums as a leader and fifty-five as a sideman with Frank Capp, Duke Ellington, Maynard Ferguson, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Ruth Brown, Benny Carter, Ray Charles, Chris Connor, Randy Crawford, Bing Crosby, Dave Frishberg, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Johnny Hodges, Milt Jackson, Irene Kral, Trini Lopez, Johnny Mathis, Gary McFarland, Dave Pell, Herb Pomeroy, Jimmy Rowles, Jack Sheldon, Patty Weaver, and Joe Williams.
Trumpeter Bill Berry passed away on November 13, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alex Riel was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 13, 1940. His career began in the mid-Sixties when he got the house drummer position at the club Montmarte in his home city with bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, and pianists Tete Montoliu or Kenny Drew. They accompanied visiting American musicians Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Dorham, Johnny Griffin, Don Byas, Donald Byrd, Brew Moore and Yusef Lateef.
Among those mentioned above he also worked with Ray Brown, Don Cherry, Art Farmer, Stéphane Grappelli, Hank Jones, and Thad Jones. He formed a renowned jazz ensemble with bass player Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Kenny Drew.
Riel has recorded thirteen albums as a leader and another twenty-five as a sideman with Drew, Gordon, Webster, Kenny Werner, Bob Brookmeyer, Thomas Clausen, Bill Evans, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Ken McIntyre, Archie Shepp, Lars Gullin, Sahib Shihab, Thorgeir Stubø and Jackie McLean.
Delving into rock music, in 1968 Alex was a founding member of the Danish rock group The Savage Rose. His album The Riel Deal won a Danish Grammy Award Jazz in 1996.
In September 2010, Riel turned seventy years old and the milestone was celebrated at the famed Jazzhus Montmartre. The event was broadcast live with the title Celebration of a Living Jazz Legend by the Danish national television station TV2 which was also showing rare photos depicting Riel with Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, Bill Evans and The Savage Rose.
His first group Alex Riel/Palle Mikkelborg Quintet won the Montreux Grand Prix Award at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1968. Over the course of his career drummer Alex Riel has founded several groups and continues to advance the music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bryce Benno Rohde was born on September 12, 1923 in Hobart, Tasmania, an island state of Australia. His early influences were Art Tatum and Nat King Cole but eventually leaned towards George Russell’s Lydian Concept.
He played jazz in Adelaide, Australia early in his career before a 1953 move to Canada. In 1954 he and two other expats plus an American formed the Australian Jazz Quartet/Quintet. The group recorded several albums and toured widely in the United States, but broke up in 1958 following a tour of Australia.
Rohde led his own quartets in Australia until 1964, then moved to California in 1965. After then he based himself out of San Francisco, leading his own ensembles at times. Among those Australian musicians with whom he worked extensively are Bruce Cale and Charlie Munro.
The pianist played New York City and Chicago, and recorded for Bethlehem Records. He also published a book combining original jazz compositions and his other passion, black and white photography. It shares the title of one of his seven recordings as a leader, Turn Right At New South Wales.
Over a career in jazz spanning more than 50 years he performed with Count Basie, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and John Coltrane among others. He eventually settled in San Francisco, California where he continued to perform and record until his death. Pianist, composer and bandleader Bryce Rohde passed away on January 26, 2016.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Martin Enevoldsen was born on September 11, 1920 in Billings, Montana. He recorded sessions with Art Pepper and Shorty Rogers, and later extensively played with Shelly Manne.
Enevoldsen did most of the arranging for Steve Allen’s Westinghouse show in the early-1960s. During the 1970s, he performed with Gerry Mulligan. In the mid-1970s Bob taught arranging and directed the jazz band at Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills.
Tenor saxophonist and valve trombonist Bob Enevoldsen, who mainly played in the West Coast genre and was known for his work with Marty Paich, passed away on November 19, 2005 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cliff Leeman was born in Portland, Maine on September 10, 1913. At age 13 he played percussion with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and toured as a xylophonist on the vaudeville circuit late in the 1920s. He first made his name in the jazz world during the Thirties and Forties working in the swing bands of Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnet, Johnny Long, and Woody Herman.
After a stint in the Army in 1944, he worked with Don Byas, John Kirby, Raymond Scott, Jimmy Dorsey, and Ben Webster. He briefly left the music industry before joining the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1947, later moving on to the Charlie Barnet Orchestra and closing out the decade in Bob Chester’s big band ensemble.
He played on radio and television in the 1950s, in addition to playing live often with Eddie Condon and Bobby Hackett. His later associations include Pee Wee Erwin, Yank Lawson/Bob Haggart, Ralph Sutton, Billy Butterfield. During the 1960s he performed with Bob Crosby, Wild Bill Davison, Dukes of Dixieland, Peanuts Hucko and Joe Venuti. The Seventies saw Cliff with The Kings of Jazz, Bud Freeman, Don Ewell, the World’s Greatest Jazz Band, and Jimmy McPartland.
He recorded several albums for Fat Cat Jazz in the 1970s. Drummer Cliff Leeman, whose nickname is Mr. Time, passed away on April 26, 1986.
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