Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Albert Aloysius Casey was born September 15, 1915 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was a child prodigy who first played violin, then switched to ukulele. He began playing guitar in 1930 and attended DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City where he studied guitar. He met Fats Waller in 1933 and the following year, at eighteen, he became a member of Waller’s band.
Making several recordings with the band, he is known for having played the solo in Buck Jumpin’. After Waller’s death in 1943, he led his own trio and for two consecutive years in the 1940s, he was voted best guitarist in Esquire magazine.
From 1957, he was a member of a rhythm and blues band led by King Curtis. Four years later he dropped out of music, though he returned in the 1970s to record with Helen Humes and Jay McShann. Another absence followed until 1981, when he returned to music to play with the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band.
During his career, Casey worked with Louis Armstrong, Chu Berry, Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Billy Kyle, Frankie Newton, Clarence Profit, Art Tatum, and Teddy Wilson.
Guitarist Albert Casey died of colon cancer on September 11, 2005, four days shy of his 80th birthday.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Craig S. Harris was born September 10, 1953 in Hempstead, New York. He graduated from the music program at State University of New York at Old Westbury and was influenced by its founder and director Makanda Ken McIntyre. He moved to New York City in 1978 established him with trombonists Ray Anderson, Joseph Bowie, and George E. Lewis.
He first played alongside another of his teachers at SUNY, baritone saxophonist Pat Patrick, in the Sun Ra Arkestra for two years. Harris then embarked on a world tour in 1979 with South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, formerly known as Dollar Brand. While on tour in Australia, he discovered the indigenous Australian wind instrument the didgeridoo, and added it to the collection of instruments he plays.
Craig subsequently performed with progressive musicians David Murray, Beaver Harris, Don Pullen, Sam Rivers, Lester Bowie, Cecil Taylor, Muhal Richard Abrams, Charlie Haden and many others, He also played in Lena Horne’s Broadway orchestra for a year. Along with Mark Isham composed the soundtrack for the 2021 film Judas and the Black Messiah.
He led his own ensembles, performed internationally and has recorded several albums. As leader, Harris. For the latter, he recorded with two groups. The Tailgater’s Tales was a quintet with clarinetist Don Byron, trumpeter Eddie Allen, Anthony Cox on double bass, and Pheeroan akLaff on drums. Harris’s large ensemble Cold Sweat was a tribute to the music of James Brown.
Trombonist Craig Harris, who has recorded since 1983 for India Navigation, Soul Note and JMT, continues to pursue his career.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeff Lofton was born on September 5, 1966 in Badhershfiele, Germany while his father was in the military. Returning to the States briefly in Virginia before moving back to their hometown of Columbia, South Carolina. Getting his first trumpet at eleven he began playing in the middle school band. In high school he was in the concert and jazz bands.
Graduating from the University of South Carolina his interest led to the avant-grade prior to moving to Dallas, Texas and then going on to performing in Austin, Texas. He has performed theater shows, released several recordings and formed an electric fusion group.
Trumpeter Jeff Lofton has been honored with a day in Austin and continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nico Assumpção was born Antônio Álvaro Assumpção Neto on August 13, 1954 in São Paulo, Brazil. His father was a professional bass player, but he debuted in music by playing the acoustic guitar at the age of 10. He took classes with Paulinho Nogueira but changed to bass six years later to fill in the void in a schoolmate’s band.
At 16, he came to the United States to study harmony and orchestration at the University of California. Returning to Brazil he went to study at CLAM, with Brazilian bassists Luis Chaves and Amilton Godoy. In 1976 he again left Brazil and landed in New York City to study and perform on a deeper level. He played with among others Wayne Shorter, Pat Metheny, Sadao Watanabe, Larry Coryell, Fred Hersh, Larry Willis, Joe Diorio, John Hicks, Steve Slagle, Victor Lewis, Dom Salvador and Charlie Rouse.
While in the States he mastered various bass playing techniques, and became one of the pioneers of fretless and 6-string bass in Brazil when he came back in 1981. That same year he released the first bassist solo album in the country, titled Nico Assumpção. The following year he moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where he lived for the rest of his life.
He was one of the most popular bassists in Brazil having played and/or recorded with Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, João Bosco, Maria Bethânia, Edu Lobo, César Camargo Mariano, Toninho Horta, Luiz Avellar, Wauke Wakabaiashi, Marco Pereira, Ricardo Silveira, Nelson Faria, Gal Costa, Hélio Delmiro, Maria Bethânia, Márcio Montarroyos, Raphael Rabello, Léo Gandelman and Victor Biglione, among others.
Bassist Nico Assumpção died from cancer on January 20, 2001 in Rio de Janeiro at age 47.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Russ Gershon was born on August 11, 1959 and grew up in Westport, Connecticut. He attended Harvard University where he received a degree in philosophy and was a disc jockey, jazz director and station manager at Harvard’s WHRB radio station. He attended Berklee College of Music for a year in 1984 and the following year the Either/Orchestra played its first live show at the Cambridge Public Library.
Founding Accurate Records he has released albums by Morphine, Medeski Martin & Wood, the Alloy Orchestra, Ghost Train Orchestra, the Either/Orchestra, Dominique Eade, and Garrison Fewell. He has been a member of rock bands and has worked as a studio musician as well as performing in Boston, Massachusetts.
In 1997 Russ played arrangements of Ethiopian popular music with the Either/Orchestra. This drew the attention of Francis Falceto, who produced the “Éthiopiques” series of albums to document 20th century Ethiopian music. Through Falceto’s connections his band were invited to Addis Ababa in 2004 and became the first American big band to perform in Ethiopia since Duke Ellington’s in 1973.Their principal concert was released as the album Ethiopiques 20: Live in Addis and led to working with Ethiopian musicians such as Mahmoud Ahmed, and appeared with Ahmed’s band at Carnegie Hall in 2016.
Saxophonist, flutist, composer, and arranger Russ Gershon continues to perform with the Either/Orchestra.
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