Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie Lee Byrd was born on September 16, 1925 in Suffolk, Virginia but grew up in Chuckatuck, Virginia and his father taught him to play the acoustic steel guitar at age 10. He went on to Virginia Polytechnic Institute, served in the Army and played in the Special Services band in Paris. Returning to New York he studied composition at Hamett National Music School, taking up classical guitar.
Charlie moved to Washington, D.C. in 1950 and studied classical guitar with Sophocles Papas, then with Andre Segovia. By 1957 he teamed up with bassist Keter Betts and started gigging around D.C. for two years, joined Woody Herman for a State Department goodwill tour.
Byrd was first introduced to Brazilian music by his friend radio host Felix Grant who was well known in Brazil in 1960. A subsequent tour of Brazil and he returned home with recordings from Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim. He met with Stan Getz who convinced Creed Taylor, then at Verve Records to produce the album, recording “Jazz Samba” in 1962 in a building adjacent to All Souls Unitarian Church because of the excellent acoustics found there. And his love affair with Brazilian music began.
Over the course of his career he has toured the world, performed at numerous festivals, played with such jazz legends as Les McCann, Zoot Sims, Vince Guaraldi, his brother bassist Joe Byrd, Chuck Redd, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel and the list goes on.
Charlie Byrd died of lung cancer on December 2, 1999 at his home in Annapolis, Maryland. He was deemed a Maryland Art Treasure in 1997 and knighted by the government of Brazil as the Knight of the Rio Branco.
Take A Dose On The Road
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Short was born Robert Waltrip Short on September 15, 1924 in Danville, Illinois. With his mother’s permission he left home for Chicago and began performing as a busker at the age of eleven.
He started working in clubs in the 1940s and in 1968 he was offered a two-week stint at the Café Carlyle in New York City’s Carlyle Hotel, a relationship that lasted until 2004. His seemingly effortless elegance and vocal phrasing were perfected at the feet of Mabel Mercer and Ethel Waters. Bobby’s presentation of unknown songs worth knowing and his infectious good cheer made him tremendously popular and earned him great respect.
He became best known for his interpretations of songs composed by Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Noel Coward and the Gershwin brothers but was equally adept at championing the works of Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson, Andy Razaf, Fats Waller and Bessie Smith.
Bobby Short, the pianist and cabaret singer, recorded 22 albums from 1955 to 2001, appeared in ten movies and 3 television shows and who was instrumental in spearheading the construction of the Ellington Memorial in his beloved New York City, passed away on March 21, 2005.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Herbert Beal was born on September 14, 1908 in Redlands, California. He played freelance piano in the Los Angeles, California area before joining Les Hite’s band in 1930. Moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1932, he got a gig playing solo piano at the Grand Terrace in addition to working with Earl Hines, Carroll Dickerson, Jimmie Noone, Erskine Tate and Frankie Jaxon.
From 1933 to 1934 Beal accompanied and recorded extensively with Louis Armstrong. After departing from Armstrong he worked with Noble Sissle and then relocated to New York City late in 1934. There he did solo residencies and played with Adrian Rollini, Buster Bailey and Eddie South before moving to Canada for a time. After his return to the U.S. he served in the Army during World War II and upon his discharge he settled in Los Angeles again. There he played solo at the Jococo Room and found his way back into Armstrong’s ensemble in 1946.
From 1948 to 1956 he worked in Europe, returned to the States and spent three years as a member of the house trio at Embers in New York City. Later in his life he eventually returned to southern California, playing at the Racquet Club in Palm Springs. Pianist Charlie Beal passed away on July 31, 1991 in San Diego, California.
Inspire A Young Mind
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero composed the theme song More that found its place in the pantheon of jazz classics. It was a part of the score for the 1962 film Mondo Cane. The film title translates to Dog’s World, or as the soundtrack album states, “a world gone to the dogs”.
Some melodies are used repeatedly, in different styles, each named for the part of the movie where the music is used. Of the 15 music tracks on the soundtrack album, one melody is presented 6 times, another melody 2 times. The melody which became known as “More” is presented 4 times, named “Life Savers Girls”, “The Last Fight/L’Ultimo Volo”, “Models In Blue/Modelle in Blu”, “Repabhan Street/Repabhan Strasse”, in styles ranging from lush to march and 3/4 waltz.
Originally composed as an instrumental and titled “Ti guarderò nel cuore”, lyrics were later provided by Marcello Ciorciolini, which were adapted into English by Norman Newell. At that point, “Theme from Mondo Cane” became “More” (not to be confused with an earlier pop song of the same name).
The Story: The movie Mondo Cane is filmed as a documentary and uses a variety of music to accompany various segments. The film uses a series of stories that take place in different cities around the world, i.e. dog pound, Rudolph Valentino statue, bikini-clad girls wooing sailors, pigs being slaughtered, and a manhunt among various others.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chu Berry was born Leon Brown Berry on September 13, 1908 in Wheeling, West Virginia. Following in his piano playing stepsister’s footprints, Chu became interested in music at an early age, playing alto saxophone at first with local bands. It wasn’t until he heard Coleman Hawkins was he inspired to take up the tenor.
Most of Berry’s abbreviated career was spent in the sax sections of major swing bands of Sammy Stewart, Benny Carter, Teddy Hill, Fletcher Henderson and Cab Calloway. He recorded with Count Basie, Bessie Smith, Mildred Bailey, The Chocolate Dandies, Teddy Wilson, Billie Holiday and Lionel Hampton among others.
Although Berry based his style on Hawkins’ playing, the older man regarded Berry as his equal, saying, “‘Chu’ was about the best.” His mastery of advanced harmony and his smoothly-flowing solos on up-tempo tunes influenced such young innovators as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and Chu was one of the jazz musicians who took part in the jam sessions at Minton’s Playhouse in New York that led to the development of bebop.
Collaborating with lyricist Andy Razaf, he composed “Christopher Columbus”, a tune that was the last important hit recording of the Fletcher Henderson orchestra. From 1937 to 1941 he would be associated with Cab Calloway until his death from complications stemming from a car accident. On October 30, 1941, tenor saxophonist Chu Berry passed away. He was just 33 years old. Author Jack Kerouac immortalized him in the beginning of his novella “The Subterraneans”.
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