Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gene M. Roland was born September 15, 1921 in Dallas, Texas and learned to play several instruments, such as trumpet and piano. He received a degree in music from the University of North Texas College of Music, first hooked up with Kenton in 1944, playing fifth trumpet and contributing arrangements. He worked briefly with Lionel Hampton and Lucky Millinder, and then rejoined Kenton in 1945 as a trombonist and writer, arranging the hit “Tampico”.
In 1946 Roland played piano and wrote for a group that included Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Jimmy Giuffre and Herbie Steward, and would lead Woody Herman’s Four Brothers Second Herd. By the late 40s, he played trombone with George Auld, trumpet with Count Basie, Charlie Barnet and Lucky Millinder, and contributed charts for the big bands of Claude Thornhill and Artie Shaw. He led a giant rehearsal band in 1950 that included Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, wrote for Kenton in 1951, Dan Terry in 1954, and Woody Herman from 1956-58, for whom he contributed 65 arrangements.
Gene was a major force in Kenton’s mellophonium band of the early 1960s, not only writing for the ensemble, but also performing as one of the mellophoniums, occasionally doubling on soprano sax with the orchestra. He provided the robust vocal on “Hawaiian Teenage Girl”, and remained active as a writer in the 1960s and 70s, working with Copenhagen’s Radiohus Orchestra and playing trumpet, piano and tenor with his own groups.
Arranger, composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Gene Roland, who was the only arranger to write for Kenton in all four decades of the band’s existence, passed away on August 11, 1982 in New York City.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Scott Hamilton was born on September 12,1954 in Providence, Rhode Island. He emerged in the 1970s and at the time he was considered to be one of the few musicians of real talent who carried the tradition of the classic jazz tenor saxophone in the style of Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins as well as Zoot Sims and Don Byas forward.
Hamilton began playing in various rhythm & blues outfits in his hometown, but subsequently shifted to jazz and the tenor saxophone. In 1976 he moved to New York City, in part the recommendation of Roy Eldridge and joined Benny Goodman for a period of time. In 1977 he recorded his debut album for Concord Records, with whom he would have a long recording career in his own name and as one of their Concord Jazz All Stars. He also worked backing singer Rosemary Clooney and others.
In the early 1980s he had formed his own quintet and toured all over the world. By then free from his drinking habit, in 1982 he had matured sufficiently to be able to break away from the spell of mainly Ben Webster and Zoot Sims, whom he had been criticized of imitating. From this point on both his playing and his tone were very much his own.
By the early 1990s Scott was ready for a next step and by 1994 when he released Organic Duke, he had developed a quite singular style: a large, well-rounded but still focused tone and improvising, ostensibly still based on the swing idiom. Tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton has amassed a catalogue of over forty albums and continues to compose, perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Peter Appleyard was born August 26, 1928 in Lincolnshire, England and became apprenticed to a nautical instrument maker after being forced to leave school due to economical reasons related to the Second World War. At that time the popularity of American Big Band music was growing in England, due to recordings by jazz legends like Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Count Basie.
Strongly influencing young Appleyard, he decided to pursue a career as a jazz musician and in the early 1940s began his career playing in the Boys Brigade, a youth organization. He went on to perform as a drummer in several other British dance bands and played in RAF bands.
In 1949 Appleyard moved to Bermuda, spent his holidays in Canada and picked up his first set of vibes, eventually settling in Toronto. He worked as a room booking clerk and a salesman studying music and soon thereafter began playing the vibraphone in concerts with Billy O’Connor in the early 1950s.
From 1954-1956 he played with a band at the Park Plaza Hotel, made numerous appearances on CBC Radio, his own jazz ensemble in 1957 and performed and toured throughout North America, appeared on American television during the 1960s. He would go on to host radio and television programs, work with Benny Goodman’s sextet, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie Orchestra, and continue to perform in Toronto nightclubs and lounges while double as music director for several bands.
In 1982 Appleyard formed the All Star Swing Band that Swing Fever, earning a gold record and a nomination for a Juno Award for Instrumental Artist of the Year. Following Goodman’s death, he formed the Benny Goodman Tribute Band in 1985, leads the “Swing Fever Band”, has had several concert tours for NATO, and has performed for Canadian and American servicemen at the North Pole Christmas Show in Greenland.
With more than two-dozen albums under his belt, vibraphonist Peter Appleyard has received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee award and regularly traveled, toured and performed around the world until his passing of natural causes on July 17, 2013 in Eden Mills, Ontario, Canada. He was 84 years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Shu was born on August 18, 1918 in New York City. He learned violin and guitar as a child before picking up saxophone as a teenager. His first professional gigs were as a harmonica-playing ventriloquist. He played in military bands while serving in the Army from 1942 to 1945.
Following his discharge he played with Tadd Dameron in 1947, George Shearing, Johnny Bothwell, Buddy Rich, Les Elgart and Lionel Hampton from 1949–1950. He would play with Charlie Barnet, Chubby Jackson and Gene Krupa through the end of the decade.
In the 1960s Shu moved to Florida, playing locally as well as clarinet with Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars, as well as Hampton and Krupa again. He would freelance around New York City, the Virgin Islands and Florida. Though he only did a few sessions as a leader in 1949, 1954 and 1955, he also recorded frequently with Gene Krupa.
Though he never gained much fame, Eddie Shu, a multi-talented swing and jazz saxophonist, a valued sideman skilled on reeds and brass instruments, passed away on July 4, 1986 in Tampa, Florida.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thurman Green was born on August 12, 1940 in Texas. A jazz trombonist, who primary performed in the bebop orientation, spent time playing in Los Angeles with swinging big bands, such as, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. He an occasional member of the Horace Tapscott Quintet, one of many groups headed by the late pianist that no one bothered to record. Thurman was open-eared enough to play quite credibly in free settings now and then.
Thurman recorded as a sideman with Willie Bobo, Donald Byrd and Bobby Hutcherson on the Blue Note label. In 1962, Green and baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett were jamming buddies at the Navy School of Music in Washington D.C. They soon went their separate ways but hoped to team up again some day.
It was thirty-two years later, in 1994, that Bluiett was able to give his old friend his first opportunity to lead his own record date with Dance of the Night Creatures that had pianist John Hicks, bassist Walter Booker or Steve Novosel and drummer Steve Williams. It is a shame that it took over four years for the music to finally come out because Green suddenly died at age 57 on June 19, 1997.
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