Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charlie Margulis was born on July 24, 1903 in Minneapolis, Minnesota into a family of accomplished theater music performers in the 1920s. That was his introduction to the professional musician’s life which led to him working with territory bands led by Eddie Elkins and Paul Specht among others. Heading to Detroit, Michigan in 1924 he joined Jean Goldkette’s Book-Cadillac Hotel Orchestra under violinist Joe Venuti. His next move was to work with bandleader Ray Miller during a period when the trumpeter roamed back and forth between Detroit and Chicago, Illinois.

By 1927 Charlie began working with Paul Whiteman, the relationship lasting nearly three years and concluding in a traditional manner for progressive jazz bands, with various sidemen stranded on the West coast. He managed to straggle back to New York City, bad luck perched on his shoulder. He got so sick that he had to return to California in order to recover but by the middle of the ’30s was well enough to log in for a New York City recording session with the Dorsey Brothers.

Caught up in the excitement of the new swing style, Margulis tried out life as a bandleader as well as spending a year on tour with Glenn Miller. His role as a bandleader was offset with work in the recording studios embracing doo-wop and r&b styles. He would go on to freelance, sometimes under the name Charlie Marlowe in California, under his own name in New York City during the Forties and Fifties.

Trumpeter Charlie Margulis died on April 24, 1967 at the age of 63 in Little Falls, Minnesota.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ben Pollack was born on June 22, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois and learned to play drums in high school. He formed groups on the side, performing professionally in his teens. He joined the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in Chicago in 1923 and later went out to Los Angeles, California and joined Harry Bastin Band.

In 1924, returning to Chicago he played for several bands including Art Kessel. That association led to his forming Ben Pollack and His Californians, the 12-piece Venice Ballroom Orchestra in 1925. He had some performances broadcast on WLW radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over time the band included Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy McPartland and Gil Rodin. From about 1928, with involvement from Irving Mills, members of Pollack’s band moonlighted at Plaza-ARC and recorded a vast quantity of hot dance and jazz for their dime store labels.

His band played in Chicago and moved to New York City in 1928, having obtained McPartland and Teagarden around that time. This outfit enjoyed immense success, playing for Broadway shows and winning an exclusive engagement at the Park Central Hotel. Pollack’s band was involved in extensive recording activity at that time, using a variety of pseudonyms in the studios. The orchestra also made a Vitaphone short subject sound film.

Fancying himelf more as a bandleader-singer type he signed Ray Bauduc to handle the drumming chores. They became known as Ben Pollack and his Park Central Orchestra. When Benny Goodman and Jimmy McPartland left the band in mid-1929. They were replaced by Matty Matlock on clarinet and Jack Teagarden’s brother, Charlie, on trumpet and tenor saxophonist Eddie Miller in 1930. Five years later the band broke up.

Pollack formed a new band with Harry James and Irving Fazola, the former with whom he wrote the hit “Peckin'”. In the early 1940s, he organized a band led by comedian Chico Marx, started Jewel Records, opened restaurants in Hollywood and Palm Springs, and appeared as himself in the movie The Benny Goodman Story, and made a cameo in The Glenn Miller Story.

Drummer Ben Pollack, who appeared in five films in the late Forties and Fifties, suffered a series of financial losses, grew despondent and hanged himself in his home in Palm Springs on June 7, 1971.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Stevenson was born into a musical family on June 20, 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland. His brother Cyrus and his father both played piano. At 15 he studied saxophone and trombone with A. J. Thomas eventually joined his Baltimore Concert Band. His trombone style was greatly influenced by Tricky Sam Nanton.

By 19 he joined pianist Harold Stepteau and his Melody Boys, before organizing his own 11-piece Baltimore Melody Boys. They disbanded in 1928 and he moved to New York City. He would go on to play with Sammy Price and His Texas Blusicians and Hot Lips Page and His Band. Through the 1930s and 1940s he worked with various other bands including the Savoy Bearcats, Charlie Johnson, Fletcher Henderson, Claude Hopkins, Jack Carter’s Orchestra, Lucky Millinder, Cootie Williams and Roy Eldridge, and Cat Anderson.

From 1948 he went on to freelance with several leaders, continuing to perform through the 1960s. He briefly led his own band in 1959 and his last performances were with Max Kaminsky a year before his death.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

William C. Rank was born in Lafayette, Indiana, on June 8, 1904 and initially worked in Indiana and Florida. In 1922, He played trombone in Tade’s Singing Orchestra, which was led by violinist Tade Dolen. Between 1923 and 1927 he played with Jean Goldkette’s band in Detroit, Michigan and often recorded with Bix Beiderbecke.

After playing with Adrian Rollini in 1927 he had a period working freelance, then he joined Paul Whiteman’s band, and stayed until 1938. Rank became a studio musician in Hollywood into the early 1940s, when he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio It was while living here that he led a tenet for the rest of the 1940s.

After changing his musical lifestyle to performing part-time, he worked in the insurance industry. His one album as a leader, a tribute to Beiderbecke, was recorded in 1973.

Trombonist Bill Rank continued playing until a short time before his death, on May 20, 1979, in Cincinnati.

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Eugene Porter was born in Pocahontas, Mississippi on June 7, 1910 and began on cornet, but when his instrument was stolen he picked up saxophone and clarinet, studying the latter under Omer Simeon. His family moved to Chicago while still in high school, but left school early to start a career in music

Moving to New Orleans, Louisiana in the Thirties he worked in and around town as well as on riverboats, with Papa Celestin, Joe Robichaux, and Sidney Desvigne. He was with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra from 1935 to 1937, then played with Don Redman briefly before returning to Jeter-Pillars until 1942. Following this Gene worked with Jimmie Lunceford and then with Benny Carter until 1944, working as assistant bandleader under him. He appeared in several films, including with Fats Waller.

Porterer was in the Army in 1944-45 as a member of an Army band, then played with Carter again and recorded with Dinah Washington during this period. For the next two years he performed with Charles Mingus and Lloyd Glenn.

After moving to San Diego, California in 1948 he played with Walter Fuller until 1960. Gene led his own ensemble at the Bronze Room in La Mesa, California beginning in 1967.

Saxophonist and clarinetist Gene Porter, who was named a member of the St. Louis Jazz Hall of Fame in the 1980s, died in San Diego County, California, on February 24, 1993.

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