Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Horace W. Henderson, the younger brother of Fletcher Henderson, was born on November 22, 1904 in Cuthbert, Georgia. He attended Wilberforce University and played in the “Collegians” band that included Benny Carter and Rex Stewart. This band would later be known as the Horace Henderson Orchestra and then as the Dixie Stompers.
Henderson left the band to work with Sammy Stewart, then in 1928 organized a new band called the Collegians and in 1931 Don Redman took over this band. Henderson continued to work as the band’s pianist and arranger before leaving to work for his brother.
He arranged for many of the most important jazz musicians of the era, such as Charlie Barnet, the Casa Loma Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, Jimmie Lunceford and also for his brother. Although Horace worked continually, led bands, arranged, recorded, and composed into the 1980s without the popularity of his older sibling, he is considered by many the more talented and skillful of the Henderson brothers.
His best-known arrangements are of his own “Hot and Anxious” which later became “In The Mood”, “Christopher Columbus” and “Big John Special”. At different times in his career, Horace was pianist and musical director for both Lena Horne and Billie Holiday.
Jazz pianist, organist, arranger and bandleader Horace Henderson passed away on August 29, 1988 at the age of 83.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Don Ewell was born November 14, 1916 in Baltimore, Maryland. Playing stride piano, from 1956 to 1962, Ewell was a leading member of the Jack Teagarden band. Following Teagarden’s death Ewell did several European tours before moving back to New Orleans, playing clubs and hotels.
Ewell played with such musicians as Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, George Lewis, George Brunis, Muggsy Spanier, Barbara Dane and Bunk Johnson among others.
He recorded a couple of albums as a leader for the Pumkin and Good Time Jazz labels and as a sideman with Willie “The Lion” Smith, Barbara Dane and Doc Evans. Pianist Don Ewell suffered two strokes before passing away on August 9, 1983.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ivy Benson was born on November 11, 1913 in Holbeck, Leeds, England. Her father Digger Benson, a musician who played with ensembles, began teaching her to play piano at the age of five. She played at working men’s clubs from the age of eight, billed as Baby Benson, and performed on BBC Radio’s Children’s Hour at nine years.
Ivy’s father had ambitions for her to become a concert pianist, but she was inspired to become a jazz musician after hearing a Benny Goodman record and learned to play clarinet and alto saxophone. Leaving school at 14, she took a job at the Montague Burton factory in Leeds, putting aside half a crown from her wages each week to save up for her first saxophone, supplementing her income by playing evenings in dance bands.
Benson joined a sextet, Edna Croudson’s Rhythm Girls in 1929, touring with them until 1935, followed by Teddy Joyce and the Girlfriends where she became a featured soloist. Moving to London in the late 1930s, she formed her own band and her first significant engagement was performing with the all-female revue Meet the Girls, starring Hylda Baker.
During World War II opportunities opened up and Ivy’s band became the BBC’s resident dance band in 1943 and was top of the bill at the London Palladium for six months in 1944. By wars end she was playing the VE Day celebration in Berlin, touring Europe and the Middle East performing for Allied troops, headlining variety theatres and performing at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Over the next thirty years the band experience much success with television appearances, a tribute on This Is Your Life, and a speaking role in the film The Dummy Talks.
The group disbanded in 1982 but she was honored as a fellow of Leeds Polytechnic, a plaque at her childhood home and a play, The Silver Lady, was based on her life. Retiring to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, multi-instrumentalist Ivy Benson passed away on May 6, 1993 at age 79.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ralph Earl Sutton was born on November 4, 1922 in Hamburg, Missouri. A stride pianist in the tradition of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, he had a stint as a session musician with Jack Teagarden’s band before joining the Army during World War II.
After the war, he played at various venues in Missouri, eventually ending up in New York City at Eddie Condon’s club in Greenwich Village. Relocating to San Francisco in 1956, Sutton recorded several albums with Bob Scobey’s Dixieland band.
Ralph recorded for Riverside and Arbors Record labels as a leader and played and recorded with Johnny Varro, Ruby Braff and Dick Cary as a sideman. From the 1960s onward, he worked mostly on his own up until the time of his death on December 30, 2001 in Evergreen, Colorado. The following year pianist Ralph Sutton was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Red Richards was born Charles Coleridge Richards on October 19, 1912 in New York City and began playing classical piano at age ten. After hearing Fats Waller at age 26 he concentrated on jazz. His first major professional gig was with Tab Smith at the Savoy Ballroom in New York from 1945 to 1949. He went on to play and record with Pee Wee Russell, Bob Wilber, Sidney Bechet, Buck Clayton, Big Chief Moore, Muggsy Spanier, Fletcher Henderson through the Fifties.
Richards toured Italy and France with Mezz Mezzrow, accompanied Frank Sinatra while in Italy, became a solo performer for a year in Columbus, Ohio, and played with Wild Bill Davison in the late 50s and again in 1962.
In 1960 Red formed Saints & Sinners with Vic Dickerson, playing with this ensemble until 1970. He joined jazz drummer Chuck Slate’s band in 1971, recorded an album with him called “Bix ‘N All That Jazz”. Through the mid-Seventies he worked with Eddie Condon, put together his own trio for two years, played with Panama Francis’s Savoy Sultans touring with them from1979 through the Eighties.
Pianist Red Richards recorded nine albums as a leader, recorded with Bill Coleman in 1980 and continued to tour nearly till the time of his death on March 12, 1998 in Scarsdale, New York.
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