Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Denzil DaCosta Best was born April 27, 1917 in New York City, New York into a musical Caribbean family originally from Barbados. Trained on piano, trumpet, and bass, he concentrated on the drums starting in 1943. Between the years 1943 and 1946 he worked with Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet and Chubby Jackson.
Known to sit in at Minton’s Playhouse, he took part in a recording with George Shearing in 1948 and was a founding member of his Quartet, remaining there until 1952. In 1949, he stepped out to play on a recording session with Lennie Tristano for Capitol Records and recorded later with Lee Konitz.
In 1953 a car accident fractured both legs and Best was forced into temporary retirement until 1954. His comeback had him playing with Artie Shaw, and then in a trio with Erroll Garner (1955–57), including Garner’s live album Concert by the Sea. He went on to play with Phineas Newborn, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Tyree Glenn. 1962 saw him in the drummer’s seat on Shiela Jordan’s first album Portrait of Sheila.
Best composed several bebop tunes, including Move, Wee, Nothing But D. Best, and Dee Dee’s Dance. With Thelonious Monk he composed Bemsha Swing and his composition 45 Degree Angle was recorded by Herbie Nichols and Mary Lou Williams.
Suffering from paralysis after the Jordan recording session, drummer, percussionist and composer Denzil Best, who was a prominent bebop drummer in the 1950s and early 1960s, transitioned after falling down a staircase in a New York City subway station at the age of 48 on May 24, 1965.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Willis “Gator” Jackson was born on April 25, 1928 in Miami, Florida and educated at the University of Miami. In 1948 he joined the Cootie Williams band as a teenager, and was part of it on and off until 1955.
Under his own name, Willis Jackson and His Orchestra, he recorded various rhythm-and-blues instrumentals for Atlantic Records. His most famous record for Atlantic is Gator’s Groove in 1952, with Estrellita as the B-side.
He toured as leader of the backing band for singer Ruth Brown. Publicly they were married, but privately they never were but lived together from 1950 to 1955. Joining Prestige Records in 1959, he made a string of albums with Pat Martino, Brother Jack McDuff, and Johnny “Hammond” Smith among many others. He also recorded for Atlantic, Muse, Trip, Big Chance, Verve, and Argo record labels.
Tenor saxophonist Willis “Gator” Jackson transitioned in New York City one week after heart surgery on October 25, 1987 at the age of 55.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Christopher Brubeck was born on March 19, 1952 in Los Angeles, California to pianist and composer Dave Brubeck. By the age of twenty he was joining his father and brothers Darius and Daniel in The New Brubeck Quartet.
Having toured for about 30 years in a group called Triple Play, he joined with guitarist Joel Brown and singer and harmonica virtuoso Peter Madcat Ruth, and swung jazz Louisiana style. He was a member of New Heavenly Blue, Chris also participated and recorded as a keyboardist/trombonist/guitarist in 1970’s Educated Homegrown.
In 1999, Chris and his brother Daniel joined with other musicians to form The Brubeck Brothers Quartet, having previously partnered with Andy LaVerne and released a 1972 album, The Brubeck-LaVerne Trio. He has performed with Mike DeMicco and Chuck Lamb.
In 2003, Chris played his first Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra with the Czech national Symphony Orchestra in Prague, Czech Republic. A year later, he composed his own concerto titled, The Prague Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra. Many of his classical compositions still contain strong hints of the jazz influence of his father.
Grammy nominated electric bassist, bass trombonist and pianist Chris Brubeck continues to pursue his musical explorations.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Robert Orendorff was born on March 18, 1906 in Atlanta, Georgia but when he was nine years old his family moved to Chicago, Illinois. His early musical years were spent learning the guitar before picking up cornet and spending his high school days with fellow students Eddie South, Wallace Bishop and Lionel Hampton. He began his career at 17, playing in Chicago dance bands, one of them led by Detroit Shannon.
Following a 1925 tour with the Helen Dewey Show, the revue dumped him in Los Angeles, California where he played with Paul Howard from 1925 to 1930. He then played with Les Hite for most of the 1930s and recorded with Louis Armstrong from 1930 to 1931. In the 1940s he accompanied Ceele Burke, and after his WWII army service, he became a post officer and an official in the American Federation of Musicians. George also recorded on the West Coast Jazz and Rhythm and Blues scene and continued to play with Les Hite.
Later in his career he worked with Maxwell Davis, Ike Lloyd, and T-Bone Walker among others. Trumpeter George Orendorff transitioned on June 28, 1984 in Los Angeles.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leroy Lovett was born on March 17, 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and studied piano with Sophie Stokowski, the wife of Leopold Stokowski, from the age of four. He began composing early and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree from Temple University and then continued his studies at the Schillinger House of Music.
He led his own band in Philadelphia before settling in New York City in 1945. The move saw him arranging for Tiny Bradshaw and Luis Russell, and working with Noble Sissle, Lucky Millinder, and Mercer Ellington. During his period away from Duke Ellington, Leroy was in the band of Johnny Hodges and recorded with him until 1955. At the end of the 1950s, he was in the Cootie Williams band and the Cat Anderson band.
During the 1950s he was a music publisher, a record producer, and had a dance orchestra in Philadelphia. From 1959, he worked for Wynne Records, and from 1968 to 1973 for Motown Records. He was still active as a musician and arranger with the Melodymakers Orchestra, he also appeared with the Uni-Bigband of Halle.
He recorded two albums under his own name and also recorded with Al Sears, Harry Carney, Al Hibbler, Lawrence Brown, Billie Holiday, Cootie Williams, Cat Anderson, and Johnny Hodges.
Pianist and arranger Leroy Lovett, who also wrote music for film, transitioned on December 9, 2013 in Chatsworth, California.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano