Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mick Pyne was born Michael John Pyne on September 2, 1940 in Thornton-le-Dale, England He learned piano from the age of three; then learned violin, and began playing cornet when he was 13.
Around 1957 he and his brother Chris formed their own band before Mick moved to London, England in 1959. He played briefly with Tony Kinsey in 1962, then played U.S. Army bases in France. In addition he worked with Alexis Korner, from 1962 to 1963.
Returning to London at the end of 1963, Pyne worked in the Sixties with John Stevens, Phil Seamen, and extensively with Tubby Hayes, He toured Europe with Stan Getz, Roland Kirk, Lee Konitz, Hank Mobley, and Joe Williams.
In the 1970s he worked with Hayes again as well as with Ronnie Scott, Humphrey Lyttelton, Jon Eardley and Cecil Payne. In the 1980s Pyne’s associations included Georgie Fame, Adelaide Hall, Keith Smith and Charlie Watts.
Pianist Mick Pyne died on May 23, 1995 in London.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rudolf Dašek was born on August 27, 1933 in Prague, Czech Republic and studied at the Prague Conservatory from 1962 to 1966 with Milan Zelenka.
He was a member of the band SHQ led by Karel Velebný, then followed with several bands for the rest of the 1960s which included a trio with George Mraz, a trio with Lou Bennett, the quintet Jazz Cellula led by Ladislav Déczi, an orchestra conducted by Gustav Brom, and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.
By the end of the decade Rudolf was working for two years in the house band at the Blue Note Club in Berlin, Germany. In the early 1970s he formed the duo System Tandem with Jiří Stivín. He also worked with guitarists Philip Catherine, Christian Escoudé, and Toto Blanke.
Guitarist Rudolf Dašek, who played solo performances in the decades following the Seventies, died on February 1, 2013.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Victor Louis Goines, born August 6, 1961 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from St. Augustine High School in New Orleans and has been a member of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet since 1993.
Goines has collaborated with Terence Blanchard, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Green, Lionel Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, B.B. King, Lenny Kravitz, Branford Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, James Moody, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, Diana Ross, Eric Clapton, Wycliffe Gordon, and Stevie Wonder.
He has performed on more than 20 recordings, including the soundtracks for three Ken Burns documentaries and the 1990s films Undercover Blues, Night Falls on Manhattan, and Rosewood. He has composed more than 200 original works, including Jazz at Lincoln Center and ASCAP commissions.
He has also served on the faculties of Florida A&M University, University of New Orleans, Loyola University of New Orleans, and Xavier University of Louisiana. Goines is an artist for Buffet Crampon and Vandoren.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Victor Goines, who was director of the jazz program at Juilliard from 2000 to 2007, has served as president and chief executive officer of Jazz St. Louis since September 2022.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Raymond Allen Draper was born on August 3, 1940 in New York City. He attended the Manhattan School of Music in the mid-1950s. As a leader, he recorded his debut album, Tuba Sounds in 1957 for Prestige Records at the age of 16, with a quintet. His sophomore album, The Ray Draper Quintet featuring John Coltrane, was recorded at the age of 17 with slight changes in his quintet, including John Coltrane.
His drug use got him imprisoned, however, after his release in the late 1960s, Draper formed the first jazz rock fusion band composed of established jazz musicians of the day. This preceded Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, which is normally recognized as the first jazz rock fusion group and recording by two years.
Original band members included George Bohanon on trombone, Hadley Caliman on tenor sax, John Duke on upright bass, Paul Lagos on drums and Tom Trujillo on guitar. This band, after its first live performance at Hollywood’s Whisky a Go Go and was offered numerous record deals and booked solid at rock venues for the rest of the year. Lagos went on to tour with John Mayall and was one of the founders of the group Pure Food & Drug Act, featuring Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris.
He began using heroin again and the more experienced band members quit, except for the youngest member, guitarist Tom Trujillo and his landlord, Chuck Gooden. He hired San Diego trumpeter Don Sleet and saxophonist Ernie Watts. Eventually Draper brought drummer Paul Lagos back, along with saxophonist Richard Aplanalp, trumpeter Phil Wood, and bassist Ron Johnson, becoming a new group named Red Beans and Rice.
They recorded the album Red Beans and Rice Featuring Sparerib Ray Draper on Epic Records. They disbanded, he got hooked on drugs again, and left California for a couple of years in London, England. He was seen sporadically performing and recording. Returning to New York City in the hopes of becoming clean, he remarried and had two children, and continued to compose for other musicians.
He went on to play for a time with Max Roach, and in 1982 he joined the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. Tha year, coming out of a bank in Harlem, he was held up by a gang of juveniles. The 13-year-old leader of the gang shot him, after he had given him his money.
Tuba player Ray Draper, who had been clean of drug use and was working on a composition found in his attaché case, died on November 1, 1982.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alan Gaumer was born on July 25, 1951 in Bethelehem, Pennsylvania. He began playing the trumpet when he was eight and was a member of Kal’s Kid’s that appeared on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour as well as numerous other television shows. Throughout elementary, junior and high school he participated in band, orchestra, and stage bands and graduated from Freedom High School in 1969.
He studied with John Nero and Willard Schissler and performed with the Allentown Band before attending the U.S. Navy School of Music. Upon graduation he spent the next three years living in Gaeta, Italy touring Europe, Africa and Asia with the Navy Show Band. Offered the jazz trumpet position at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis before his discharge, from 1973-75 he toured first as trumpeter and later as drummer with the well known group KATO.
Settling back in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania he was an integral part of a popular group P.F. & the Flyers and his own A.G.Q. After attending Rutgers University, Alan spent two years touring South America and West Africa with the U.S. Navy Show Band. When he got out in 1982, he worked for several years at well known hotels and resorts.
He has performed with a long list of jazz musicians which include Randy Brecker, Phil Woods, Al Cohn, George Young, Bob Dorough, Tom Harrell, Bill Watrous, Urbie Green, Kim Parker, Vic Jurris, Charles Fambrough, Bill Washer, John Swanna, David Leonhardt, Steve Gilmore, Bill Goodwin, Bobby Routch, Tom Schuman of Spyro Gyra and others.
As an educator Gaumer has been the jazz trumpet Artist/Lecturer at Moravian College since 1994 and served as Fusion ensemble director in 1998-99, 2003-04 and 2005-06. He is Artistic Director of the Pennsylvania Jazz Collective, a Lehigh Valley based non-profit jazz organization.
Trumpeter and educator Alan Gaumer continues to perform, teach and produce jazz events.
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