Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frankie Carle, born Francis Nunzio Carlone on March 25, 1903 in Providence, Rhode Island. The son of a factory worker who could not afford a piano, he practiced on a dummy keyboard devised by his uncle, pianist Nicholas Colangelo, until he found a broken-down instrument in a dance hall. By 1916, now a teenager, he began working with his uncle’s band as well as a number of local bands around the state. To overcome prejudice against Italians he changed his name to Carle.
In the Thirties, he started out working with a number of mainstream dance bands that included the Mal Hallett Orchestra, had his own orchestra and at one time was billed in an ad for a night club as America’s Greatest Pianist. Joining Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights in 1939, Frankie later became co-leader of the band. His popularity during his time with Heidt’s band allowed him to leave the band in 1944 and form his own band, The Frankie Carle Orchestra and his daughter, Marjorie Hughes, sang with his band. During World War II, with his orchestra, he recorded a couple of V-Disc in a program of the U.S. War Department that featured his new compositions Moonlight Whispers and Sunrise Serenade. Some eleven years later he disbanded, embarked on his solo career in 1955 and until the 1980s, maintained a close following of loyal fans.
He had early exposure on the radio as a pianist for The Four Belles, a singing group distributed by the World Broadcasting System. In the mid-1940s, he and singer Allan Jones starred in the Old Gold Show on CBS radio and was also featured on the shows Pot o’ Gold, Treasure Chest, and The Chesterfield Supper Club. Over the course of his career, he recorded some four-dozen albums, composed over two-dozen popular romantic dance melodies. Pianist and bandleader Frankie Carle, whose #1 hit Sunrise Serenade sold over a million copies, passed away on March 7, 2001.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Burns was born on March 24, 1924 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey and began playing trumpet when he was nine years old. As a teenager, he heard bebop performances at Minton’s Playhouse, among others Dizzy Gillespie. His first ensemble was in Al Cooper’s Savoy Sultans, with whom he played from 1941 to 1943, prior to joining the Army Air Force. There he led a band from 1943 to 1945 that included James Moody as a sideman.
He joined Gillespie’s band in 1946 and appeared with Gillespie in Jivin’ in Bebop in 1947. After leaving Gillespie’s band in 1949, he worked with Duke Ellington from 1950 to 1952 and then with James Moody until 1957.
The late 1950s saw Dave playing shows in New York City and in the Sixties recorded for Vanguard Records. He worked with Billy Mitchell, Al Grey, Willie Bobo, Art Taylor, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Leo Parker, and Milt Jackson. From the 1970s through the end of his career he increased his work as an educator. Trumpeter, flugelhornist, arranger, composer, and teacher Dave Burns passed away on April 5, 2009 in Freeport, New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harry Hayes was born Henry Richard Hayes in Marylebone in the West End of London, England on March 23, 1909, a bookmaker’s son. Winning a scholarship to his local grammar school, he was given a soprano saxophone by his father when he was 11 and by age 16, made his professional debut as an alto player at the Regent dance hall in Brighton. He was soon playing at London’s Kit Kat Club and the Piccadilly hotel. In 1927, he joined Elizalde at the Savoy, working alongside Americans like saxophonists Adrian Rollini, Fud Livingstone and Bobby Davis, trumpeter Chelsea Quealey, and pianist Jack Russin.
He became highly successful during the big band era of popular music that dominated by radio and bands playing London hotels and clubs. The late 1920s through the 30s, Hayes worked with musicians and bands such as Sydney Kyte at Ciro’s Club, pianist Billy Mason at the Cafe de Paris, Spike Hughes’s Orchestra at the Empress Rooms, Leslie “Hutch” Hutchinson, and Maurice Winnick at the Carlton, with Harry Roy at the Mayfair and with Sydney Lipton at the Grosvenor House. In 1932, he was featured in the band that accompanied Louis Armstrong’s first British tour.
Called up in 1940, Hayes served in the Welsh Guards band but continued to perform with others. After his discharge in 1944, he formed an eight-piece band, which went on to record sessions for HMV at Abbey Road featuring some of the best players of the day including Harry Roche, Norman Stenfalt, a young George Shearing and tenor saxophone Tommy Whittle. He played with Benny Carter, and appeared in a London Jazz At The Philharmonic concert with Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lester Young.
By 1947, Hayes was playing Charlie Parker bebop, and opening his first music shop in Shaftesbury Avenue. He was also active as a music teacher. While working with Kenny Baker in the 1950s, he led his own band at various London nightspots. Retiring from regular playing in 1965, he continued to run his shops until 1985. He was granted the freedom of the City of London in 1988 nd his last performance was at the Birmingham international jazz festival in 1992. Saxophonist and shopkeeper Harry Hayes passed away at the age of 92 on March 17, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sonny Burke, born Joseph Francis Burke on March 22, 1914 in Scranton, Pennsylvania and in the Thirties attended Duke University where he formed and led the jazz big band called The Duke Ambassadors. Graduating in 1937, during the 1930s and 1940s, he was a big band arranger in New York City, working with Sam Donahue’s band.
In the 1940s and 1950s, he worked as an arranger for the Charlie Spivak and Jimmy Dorsey bands, among others. 1955 saw him writing, along with Peggy Lee, the songs to Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. He also wrote songs with John Elliot for Disney’s Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, which won the 1953 Oscar for Best Short Animated Feature.
Burke wrote the music for number of popular songs that continue to be regarded as jazz standards including Black Coffee, with lyric by Paul Francis Webster, and Midnight Sun, co-written with jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. An active arranger, conductor and A&R man at major Hollywood record labels, especially Decca Records, he worked with Charles “Bud” Dant. He also wrote and arranged the theme for the early 1960s television show Hennesey, a jazzy update of the Sailor’s Hornpipe.
Later Sonny went on to become musical director at Warner Bros./Reprise Records. He was responsible for many of Frank Sinatra’s albums and produced Sinatra’s iconic recording of My Way and Petula Clark’s classic This Is My Song written by Charles Chaplin for his movie A Countess From Hong Kong. He was also the bandleader for recordings of leading singers such as Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters, The Mills Brothers, Ella Fitzgerald, and Mel Tormé.
Arranger, composer, big band leader, and producer Sonny Burke passed away from cancer on May 31, 1980 in Santa Monica, California at the age of 66.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Maria Katindig-Dykes was born in the Philippines on March 21, 1955 into a renowned musical family to legendary jazz pianist, Romy Katindig. In the family music business since the age of 16, she has performed a wide variety of musical styles, but her true passion is for jazz and bossa nova.
During the Seventies, she performed in a pop-rock ensemble called Circus Band, who represented the Philippines at the Tokyo Music Festival in the 1970s. Maria went on to play Silahis International Playboy Jazz Club and was the featured vocalist for 3 years at the Top of the Hilton, both in Manila.
A move to Honolulu, Hawaii where she met her future husband, jazz pianist, arranger and composer, Jimmie Dykes, and together they formed Pacifica, a jazz ensemble that became a very popular music attraction performing in the clubs in the Pacific arena.
Riverside in Southern California was her next stop for the artist with performances at many of the regional universities, at Mario’s Place, and the Silver Screen Jazz Club at the Hyatt on Sunset in Hollywood, alongside internationally renowned jazz artists Tal Farlow and Barney Kessel.
In 2005, diagnosed with cancer, she successfully waged a battle that left her happily performing today with No More Blues! It is a pleasant undertaking featuring eleven covers of pop and jazz standards. Among the best are “Favela” and “In Walked Bud”.
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