Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Richard Berry was born on September 14, 1930 in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The son of a bass player in a touring dance band, he spent his early years traveling with his parents sleeping in the bass case under the bandstand when he was only a few months old. From the age of five, he took piano lessons at home in South Bend, Indiana. In high school in Cincinnati, Ohio he switched to trumpet, and played in a Midwest band led by Don Strickland, after which he served four years in the Air Force.
He studied at the Cincinnati College of Music and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts then played trumpet with the Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson orchestra. In 1961, he became one of the Duke Ellington orchestra’s first white members. After his working with Ellington, he played with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and led his own big band in New York.
In 1965 he joined The Merv Griffin Show, where he remained for fifteen years, moving to Los Angeles, California with Griffin and reforming his group as the L.A. Big Band in 1971. Among the most successful of his own 1978 recording Shortcake, an album of jazz for small groups in the Ellington style. He appeared on many albums by other musicians, including Rosemary Clooney, Scott Hamilton, Jake Hanna, and Coleman Hawkins.
He recorded four albums as a leader and fifty-five as a sideman with Frank Capp, Duke Ellington, Maynard Ferguson, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Ruth Brown, Benny Carter, Ray Charles, Chris Connor, Randy Crawford, Bing Crosby, Dave Frishberg, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Johnny Hodges, Milt Jackson, Irene Kral, Trini Lopez, Johnny Mathis, Gary McFarland, Dave Pell, Herb Pomeroy, Jimmy Rowles, Jack Sheldon, Patty Weaver, and Joe Williams.
Trumpeter Bill Berry passed away on November 13, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cliff Leeman was born in Portland, Maine on September 10, 1913. At age 13 he played percussion with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and toured as a xylophonist on the vaudeville circuit late in the 1920s. He first made his name in the jazz world during the Thirties and Forties working in the swing bands of Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnet, Johnny Long, and Woody Herman.
After a stint in the Army in 1944, he worked with Don Byas, John Kirby, Raymond Scott, Jimmy Dorsey, and Ben Webster. He briefly left the music industry before joining the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1947, later moving on to the Charlie Barnet Orchestra and closing out the decade in Bob Chester’s big band ensemble.
He played on radio and television in the 1950s, in addition to playing live often with Eddie Condon and Bobby Hackett. His later associations include Pee Wee Erwin, Yank Lawson/Bob Haggart, Ralph Sutton, Billy Butterfield. During the 1960s he performed with Bob Crosby, Wild Bill Davison, Dukes of Dixieland, Peanuts Hucko and Joe Venuti. The Seventies saw Cliff with The Kings of Jazz, Bud Freeman, Don Ewell, the World’s Greatest Jazz Band, and Jimmy McPartland.
He recorded several albums for Fat Cat Jazz in the 1970s. Drummer Cliff Leeman, whose nickname is Mr. Time, passed away on April 26, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alvin Elmore Alcorn was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 7, 1912. Learning music theory from his brother, in the early 1930s he was a member of the Sunny South Syncopators led by Armand J. Piron.
He worked in Texas as a member of Don Albert’s swing band, but he spent most of his career in New Orleans in the dixieland bands of Paul Barbarin, Sidney Desvigne, Oscar Celestin, and Octave Crosby.
During the 1950s, he moved to Los Angeles, California and joined Kid Ory’s band, then a couple years later returned home to New Orleans. After going on tour in Europe with Chris Barber in the late 1970s, he continued to perform into the 1980s.
Trumpeter Alvin Alcorn passed away on July 10, 2003.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Johnny Letman was born September 6, 1917 in McCormick, South Carolina and early in his career played in midwest bands, including those of Jerry Valentine, Scatman Crothers, and Jimmy Raschelle. Moving to Chicago in the middle of the 1930s, he worked with Delbert Bright, Bob Tinsley, Johnny Lang, Nat King Cole, Horace Henderson, and Red Saunders in the late Thirties to early 1940s.
After spending a year or so in Detroit playing with Teddy Buckner and John Kirby, he moved to New York City in 1944. There he performed with Phil Moore, Lucky Millinder, Cab Calloway, Milt Buckner, and Count Basie.
Working extensively as a studio musician and in Broadway shows throughout the 1950s and 1960s worked both in and outside of jazz music, and his associations in these decades included Joe Thomas, Stuff Smith, Chubby Jackson, Panama Francis, Dick Wellstood, Hal Singer, Sam Taylor, Eddie Condon, Wilbur De Paris, and Claude Hopkins.
By 1968 he was playing with Milt Buckner and Tiny Grimes in Paris, France. In the 1970s, he played with Lionel Hampton, Cozy Cole, and Earl Hines. In the mid-Eighties he led the New Orleans Blues Serenaders, and toured Europe. Trumpeter Johnny Letman passed away on July 17, 1992.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thomas Mossie McQuater was born on September 4, 1914 in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland. Showing early signs of musical talent and largely self-taught, he began on the cornet but by the age of 11 was a regular member of the Maybole Burgh Band. The brass band won several competitions in the late 1920s and they played at local events and dances.
Turning professional in his teens, Tommy got a regular position with Louis Freeman’s Band, which played at Greens Playhouse in Glasgow. In 1934, at 20, he was offered a job with one of London, England’s most renowned bands, the Jack Payne Orchestra, playin in London and Paris, France. His next stint was with the Lew Stone Band and made the classic recording of Pardon Me, Pretty Baby.
In the 1940s, after joining The Squadronaires, he worked with the BBC Showband in 1945. He often performed with John McLevy in the 1970s and 1980s. In his later years, he concentrated his energy playing around the Ealing Jazz Festival. Trumpeter, flugelhornist and cornetist Tommy McQuater passed away on January 20, 2008 in London, England at the age of 93.
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