Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cliff Jackson was born Clifton Luther Jackson on July 19, 1902 in Culpepper, Virginia. Learning to play stride piano he played in Atlantic City until moving to New York City in 1923. He played with Lionel Howard’s Musical Aces in 1924, recorded with Bob Fuller and Elmer Snowden, led his own ensemble, the Krazy Kats, for recordings in 1930, and following this group’s dissolution he played extensively as a solo pianist in several New York nightclubs.
During this time Jackson accompanied singers such as Viola McCoy, Lena Wilson, Sara Martin and Clara Smith. He recorded with Sidney Bechet in the early Forties and would record as a soloist or leader by mid-decade and again in the Sixties. His greatest success came as house pianist at Cafe Society from 1943-5; but he also toured with Eddie Condon, and played with Garvin Bushell, J.C. Higginbotham and Joe Thomas.
Cliff married singer Maxine Sullivan, had his powerful stride piano style showcased on such solo recordings as “Limehouse Blues”, and his left-hand techniques highlighted and explained in detail in books Ricardo Scivales’ method Jazz Piano: Left Hand. Stride pianist Cliff Jackson passed away of heart failure on May 24, 1970 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Fats Waller was born Thomas Wright Waller on May 21, 1904 in New York City. He started playing the piano when he was six and graduated to the organ in his father’s church four years later. At the age of fourteen he was playing the organ at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem. Within twelve months he had composed his first rag, and recorded his first piano solos “Muscle Shoals Blues” and “Birmingham Blues” in 1922 when he was 18 years old.
The prize pupil, friend and colleague of stride pianist James P. Johnson, he became one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and commercial success at home and Europe. Waller was a prolific songwriter, composing hundreds with his closest collaborator Andy Razaf and many became standards such as Honeysuckle Rose, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Squeeze Me. He recorded profusely for RCA, Victor and EMI and performed and recorded with Gene Austin, Billy Banks, Adelaide Hall, Erskine Tate, Bill Coleman, Al Casey, Rudy Powell and Jack Teagarden among others.
Waller was kidnapped in Chicago leaving a performance in 1926, taken to the Hawthorne Inn, and upon insistence at gunpoint became the surprise guest at Al Capone’s birthday. Rumored he played three nights but when he left he was drunk, tired and thousands of dollars richer. He appeared on one of the first BBC radio broadcasts, influenced many pre-bop pianists such as Count Basie and Erroll Garner and was first to play syncopated jazz compositions were performed on a full sized church organ.
He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, Gennett Records Walk of Fame, Jazz At Lincoln Center: Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall Of Fame, Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Pianist, organist, composer, singer and comedic entertainer Fats Waller, passed away of pneumonia in Kansas City, Missouri on December 15, 1943.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Dixon was born on April 8, 1909 in New Orleans, Louisiana but grew up throughout the South traveling with his father as he ministered. He began playing trumpet as a child, then while living in Natchez, Mississippi at age thirteen he began playing the violin. He would go on to study the instrument at Arkansas State College, where he picked up the alto saxophone.
Dixon’s move to Chicago in 1926 would have him playing with Sammy Stewart from 1928, including a tour of New York City in 1930. His longest and most important residency was with Earl Hines and for nearly twelve years he would play trumpet, saxophone and arrange for the band.
During World War II George led a Navy band in Memphis, Tennessee, then returned to Chicago playing with Floyd Campbell, Ted Eggleston and others. During the Forties into the next decade he led his own band at the Circle Inn. Never recording as a leader, from about the mid-1950s trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist George Dixon stopped playing full-time, though he continued to play occasionally up until his death on August 1, 1994.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dorothy Donegan was born on April 6, 1922 and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She began studying piano at the age of eight taking her first lessons from West Indian pianist Alfred N. Simms. Graduating from DuSable High School she went on to study at the Chicago Musical College and the University of Southern California.
In 1942 she made her recording debut, appeared in Sensations of 1945 with Cab Calloway, Gene Rodgers and W.C. Fields, worked in Chicago nightclubs and was Art Tatum’s protégé.
Dorothy’s flamboyance helped her find work in a field that was largely hostile to women. To a certain extent, it was also her downfall; her concerts were often criticized for having an excess of personality. Her outspoken view of sexism, along with her insistence on being paid the same rates as male musicians, limited her career. However limited, her career would overshadow her recordings until the 80s when recognition of her jazz recordings would gain notice.
Pianist Dorothy Donegan, who played stride piano, boogie-woogie, bop, swing and classical music was the first Black woman to play at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, was a recipient of an American Jazz Master” fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and an honorary doctorate from Roosevelt University, passed away of cancer on May 19, 1998 in Los Angeles, California.
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Herb Flemming was born Nicolaiih El-Michelle of North African descent on April 5, 1898 in Butte, Montana. He studied music and played mellophone and euphonium before switching to trombone. During World War I he was a member of James Resse Europe’s 15th New York National Guard Band and then Europe’s 369th U.S. Infantry Band in France in 1917.
Post war Flemming studied at the Frank Damrosch Conservatory playing cello followed by study at the St. Cecilia Academy in Florence and the University of Rome. By 1921 he was playing with Fred Tunstall, recording with Johnny Dunn, then joining Sam Wooding and Bobby Lee’s band in Philadelphia. In the 1920s he joined Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds show, which toured London and Paris toward the end of the decade.
Herb formed his own band, the International Rhythm Aces, in Europe around 1930, while continuing to work with Wooding. They collaborated in Berlin, then found work accompanying Josephine Baker. He would go on to play in Buenos Aires, Paris, Shanghai, Calcutta and Ceylon. By the mid-thirties he would play in Sestto Carlin’s Society Orchestra in Italy and interpret for the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany.
In the late 30s Herb Fleming returned home playing with Earl Hines, Fats Waller, and Noble Sissle prior to a move to California and working for the Internal Revenue Service. In the Forties he freelanced around New York, worked with Red Allen, moved to Spain, recorded with Walter Bishop Jr. and Albert Nichols. Returning to New York City, vocalist and trombonist Herb Fleming passed shortly afterward on October 3, 1976.
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