Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bernard Sylvester Addison was born on April 15, 1905 in Annapolis, Maryland. At an early age, he learned mandolin and violin, and after moving to Washington, D.C. in 1920 he played banjo, initially with Claude Hopkins.

Moving to New York City he worked with Sonny Thompson and recorded for the first time in 1924. During the 1920s, he dropped the banjo for the acoustic guitar. The 1920s and 1930s saw Bernard playing with Louis Armstrong, Adelaide Hall, Fletcher Henderson, Bubber Miley, Art Tatum, and Fats Waller. Addison recorded with Red Allen, Coleman Hawkins, Horace Henderson, Freddie Jenkins, Sara Martin, Jelly Roll Morton, and Mamie Smith.

In 1936, John Mills of the Mills Brothers died, and Addison replaced him on guitar. For two years he toured and recorded with the Mills Brothers, increasing his popularity. After departing the Mills Brothers, he had little trouble finding work. He went on to record with Benny Carter and Mezz Mezzrow.

He played with Stuff Smith and recorded with Billie Holiday. In 1940, he recorded with Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. He began to lead bands until he was drafted during World War II. In the late 1950s, he reunited with Henderson and played guitar for the Ink Spots. He performed at the Newport Jazz Festival with Eubie Blake in 1960 and recorded a solo album as a leader, Pete’s Last Date, and unfortunately was reissued under the name of saxophonist Pete Brown.

Guitarist Bernard Addison, who spent the remaining thirty years of his career teaching, died on December 18, 1990 at 85 in Rockville Centre, New York.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Zue (C. Alvin) Robertson was born on March 7, 1891 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His first instrument was the piano, and switched to playing the trombone at the age of 13. He performed in circus bands and traveling revues, including Kit Carson’s Wild West Show. He was part of the Olympia Band around 1914 and was a trombonist for Manuel Perez, Richard M. Jones, and John Robichaux.

Robertson was an early influence on Kid Ory, giving him lessons, and the two practised together. After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1917 he played at the De Luxe Café, and by the mid-1920s he was playing with leaders of the stature of Jelly Roll Morton, with whom he recorded Some Day Sweetheart/London Blues in 1923, and King Oliver in 1924.

He recorded two sides with the Levee Serenaders in 1928  and plus the two from 1923, are his only recordings. After moving to New York City in 1929, Robertson concentrated on playing the organ and the piano, and stopped playing the trombone the following year. A few years later he moved to California, where he played piano and added the bass during the years he spent in the 1930s.

Trombonist Zue Robertson, who also played piano, organ, and bass, died in 1943 in Los Angeles, California.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Barry Martyn was born Barry Martyn Godfrey in London, England on February 23, 1941. He began learning drums in 1955 and was leading his first band the following year. His first recordings were made in 1959.

His first visit to New Orleans, Louisiana was in 1961 where he studied under Cie Frazier, and founded Mono Records. He toured Europe with many famed New Orleans jazz personnel, including George Lewis, Albert Nicholas, Louis Nelson, Captain John Handy, and Percy Humphrey.

Moving to Los Angeles, California in 1972 he founded the Legends of Jazz, an ensemble which made several worldwide tours and recorded extensively. Returning to New Orleans in 1984 he worked with George Buck, reissuing much of the Circle Records back catalogue. He played with Barney Bigard in 1976, and recorded many dates as a leader.

Drummer Barry Martyn died on July 17, 2023 at the age of 82.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Wellman Braud was born on January 25, 1891 in St. James Parish, Louisiana and settled in New Orleans, Louisiana. In his early teens he was playing the violin and the upright bass and leading a trio in venues in the Storyville District before 1910.

Moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1917 by 1923 he was performing in London, England with the Plantation Orchestra, doubling on bass and trombone. His next move was to New York City, where he played with Wilber Sweatman’s band before joining Duke Ellington.

Braud was the first to utilize the walking bass style that has been a mainstay in modern jazz. His vigorous melodic bass playing, alternately plucking, slapping, and bowing, was an important feature of the early Ellington Orchestra in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1936 he co-managed a short-lived Harlem club with Jimmie Noone, and recorded with the group Spirits of Rhythm from 1935 to 1937.

He would go on to play with the bands of Kaiser Marshall, Hot Lips Page, and Sidney Bechet and returned for a while to Ellington in 1944. In 1956 Wellman joined the Kid Ory Band and in the late 1950s, he joined the Barbara Dane Trio. Doing so he  turned down opportunities to return to Duke Ellington’s band and tour with Louis Armstrong.

Upright bassist Wellman Braud, who is a distant relative of the Marsalis brothers on their mother’s side, died on October 29, 1966 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 76.

Duke Ellington postumously paid tribute to Braud, with the composition Portrait of Wellman Braud on his 1970 album New Orleans Suite.

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DailyDose Of Jazz…

Leonard Ware was born in Richmond, Virginia on December 28, 1909. He went to college at the Tuskegee Institute and learned to play the oboe.

By 1938 Ware was playing electric guitar on recordings by Sidney Bechet. He then started working with Jimmy Shirley, who was one of the first groups to have two electric guitarists.

In December 1938, he played at Carnegie Hall with the Kansas City Six alongside Lester Young and Buck Clayton. 1939 saw him recording Umbrella Man with Benny Goodman. He performed in a trio during the 1940s and recorded as a leader in 1947. Leonard also recorded with Don Byas, Albinia Jones, Buddy Johnson, and Big Joe Turner.

Ware was the co-composer of Hold Tight, which he recorded with Bechet and I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem with Jerry Gray and Buddy Feyne, which was recorded by Glenn Miller and The Delta Rhythm Boys in 1941. 

Dropping out of music a few years later, guitarist Leonard Ware, who was one of the first American jazz guitarists to play electric guitar, died at the age of 64 on March 30, 1974.

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