Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ernestine Anderson was born November 11, 1928 in Houston, Texas. By age three she was singing along with the raw tunes of the legendary Bessie Smith and soon moved on to the more refined environs of her local church, singing solos in its gospel choir. She grew up listening to John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and other blues greats while listening to the live performances of the Jimmy Lunceford, Billy Eckstine, Erskine Hawkins and Count Basie big bands. At twelve she entered into a local talent contest and singing around the melody in the wrong key was told she was a jazz singer.
Moving to Seattle with her family when she was sixteen, Ernestine graduated from Garfield High and at eighteen went on the road with the Johnny Otis band. By 1952 she was with Lionel Hampton, then settled in New York working with Gigi Gryce, touring Europe with Rolf Ericson. She recorded her debut album “Hot Cargo” in Sweden and released by Mercury Records. She won Down Beat’s “New Star” award in ’59, continued to record for Mercury to sensational acclaim, splitting her time between the States and Europe.
Anderson stepped out of the limelight as the Sixties ushered in rock and roll but re-emerged in the mid 1970’s with Ray Brown as her manager. Her appearance at the Concord Jazz Festival led to a string of albums for the label working into the ‘90s with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra among others.
In 2008 she fell on hard times and her family home facing foreclosure, was saved by an outpouring of donations by friends and colleagues like Quincy Jones and Dianne Schuur. Ernestine Anderson, a jazz and blues singer has enjoyed a career that has spanned over half a century has recorded over 30 albums, been nominated four times for a Grammy Award, has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Monterey Jazz Festival six times during her prolific career as well as jazz festivals and clubs all over the world.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Houston Person, born November 10, 1934, grew up in Florence, South Carolina, first playing the piano before switching to tenor sax. He studied at South Carolina State College, went on to join the Air Force, became a member of a service band stationed in West Germany and played with Don Ellis, Eddie Harris, Cedar Walton and Leo Wright.
After his discharge he continued his studies at Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. He first became known for a series of albums for Prestige Records in the 1960s, met Etta Jones while both were with Johnny Hammond’s band and spent many years as her musical partner, recording, performing and touring, and for much of his career this association was what he was best known for. Contrary to popular belief, they were never married.
Houston has performed in the hard bop and swing genres but is best known for his soul-jazz work. He has recorded more than seventy-five albums as a leader for Prestige, Westbound, Mercury, Savoy, and Muse Records. He is currently in residence as a leader and record producer at HighNote and has recorded with Charles Brown, Bill Charlap, Charles Earland, Lena Horne, Etta Jones, Lou Rawls, Horace Silver, Dakota Staton, Billy Butler and Richard “Groove” Holmes among others.
He received the Eubie Blake Jazz Award in 1982 and was inducted into the South Carolina State College Hall of Fame in 1999. He continues to produce, record, perform and tour.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Bells Are Ringing opened on November 29, 1956 at the Shubert Theatre, starring Judy Holliday, Jean Stapleton, Sydney Chaplin, Jack Weston and John Cleese, running 924 performances. The music and lyrics were composed and written by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The original production was directed by Jerome Robbins, choreographed by Robbins and Bob Fosse and ran for 924 total performances after transferring to the Alvin Theatre. The Party’s Over and Just In Time rose to prominence as jazz standards.
The Story: Ella Peterson works in the basement office of “Susanswerphone”, her boss, Sue, telephone answering service. Listening in on others’ lives, adds some interest to her own humdrum existence by adopting different identities and voices for her clients. They include Blake Barton, an out-of-work method actor, Dr. Kitchell, a dentist with musical yearnings but lacking talent, and playwright Jeff Moss, who is suffering from writer’s block and desperately needs a muse. Ella considers the relationships with these clients “perfect” because she can’t see them and they can’t see her.
When Jeff Moss pleads with Ella for help in writing, she responds, and a romance ensues. Complications arise when Ella thinks that she does not fit in with Jeff’s wealthy friends. Adding complications are the police, who are certain the business is a front for an “escort service,” and Sandor, the owner’s shady boyfriend, who unbeknownst to Sue is using the agency as a bookmaking operation.
Broadway History: Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Off Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theatres are often defined as theatres that have fewer than 100 seats,though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that employs union actors but not under an Off-Broadway, Broadway or Lort contract. It is often used as a term relating to any show with non-union actors. The shows range from professional productions by established artists to small amateur performances.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Milton Mesirow, better known as Mezz Mezzrow was born November 9, 1899 in Chicago, Illinois. The clarinetist and saxophonist has never been ranked as one of the best jazz musicians, organizing and taking part in some magnificent recording sessions involving the best black musicians of the 1930s/40s, including Benny Carter, Teddy Wilson, Frankie Newton, Tommy Ladnier and most importantly Sidney Bechet. His 1938 sessions for the French jazz critic Hugues Panassie, which he is well-known for organizing and financing, involved Bechet and Ladnier and helped spark the “New Orleans revival”.
Mezzrow became better known for his drug-dealing of marijuana than his music. His nicknames “Mezz” and “Muggles” that became slang for marijuana were used in song, the former in the Stuff Smith tune “If You’re A Viper” and the later was the title of a 1928 Louis Armstrong recording and for a brief time was his manager.
In the mid-1940s Mezzrow started his own record label, King Jazz Records, featuring himself in groups that usually included Sidney Bechet and, often, trumpeter Oran “Hot Lips” Page. Mezzrow also can be found and heard playing on six recordings by Fats Waller and his appearance at the 1948 Nice Jazz Festival was a surprise hit.
Following that appearance he made his home in Paris, France and organized many bands that included French musicians like Claude Luter, as well as visiting American artists like Peanuts Holland, Jimmy Archey, Kansas Fields, Lionel Hampton and Buck Clayton, with whom in 1953 he made what is probably his best ever recording: a version of the Louis Armstrong classic “West End Blues”.
Mezz Mezzrow, clarinetist, saxophonist, author and colorful character died on August 5, 1972 in Paris, France.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Russell Malone was born November 8, 1963 in Albany, Georgia. He began playing at the age of four with a toy guitar his mother had bought him, influenced by musicians such as B. B. King and The Dixie Hummingbirds. However, his most influential musical experience was seeing George Benson perform on television with Benny Goodman. He learned technique from listening to recordings of Benson, Wes Montgomery and Charlie Christian among others.
Malone played with jazz organist Jimmy Smith, followed by a residency with the Harry Connick Jr. Big Band and in 1995, Malone became part of the Diana Krall Trio, that had three albums nominated for a Grammy. Following his tenure with Krall, he went on to tour regularly leading his own quartet, has played with Dianne Reeves, Romero Lubambo, Ron Carter, Bobby Hutcherson, the late Mulgrew Miller, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Hank Jones, Benny Green, Bill Frisell and Sonny Rollins.
The essentially self-taught swing and bebop jazz guitarist has recorded several sessions for Columbia, Impulse, Venus, Verve and Telarc record labels and since 2004 has recorded on the MaxJazz label with his latest 2010 session being “Triple Play”. Russell Malone has amassed to date 18 albums in his catalogue and continues to perform, record and tour.
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