Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Alexander Scobey Jr. was born on December 9, 1916 in Tucumcari, New Mexico and began his career playing in dance orchestras and nightclubs in the 1930s. By 1938 he was working as second trumpeter for Lu Watters in the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. By 1949, he was leading his own band under the name Bob Scobey’s Frisco Band.
In the Fifties the group continued to play a three-year residency at the Victor & Roxie’s, growing their popularity. Clancy Hayes joined the band to sing, play banjo and contributed his own compositions such as Huggin’ and a Chalkin’. The collaboration recorded over two hundred tracks until he left in 1959 to follow a solo career.
The Frisco Band broadcasted in 1952 and 1953 on Rusty Draper’s television show. In 1953, Louis Armstrong sang with them at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. From 1954-57, blues singer Lizzie Miles recorded and toured with the band.
In 1955, Scobey and his band played dates at San Quentin Prison and at the Rancho Grande in Lafayette, California. Two years later he recorded for Verve Records and RCA Victor, and on the latter Bing with a Beat recorded with Bing Crosby in 1957. From early in 1956, he toured colleges and universities and, in 1958, he recorded many of the student favorites and released the album College Classics.
While touring in 1960, he was reportedly drinking half and half or heavy cream to ease the pain in his stomach. Trumpeter Bob Scobey passed away from cancer on June 12, 1963 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His wife Jan posthumously produced a biography titled He Rambled!.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Born in Boggs, Oklahoma on December 7, 1906, George James began his career late in the 1920s, in the bands of Charlie Creath and Johnny Neal. Moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1928, he played with Jimmie Noone, Sammy Stewart, Ida Marples, Jabbo Smith, and Bert Hall.
In 1931 on into 1932 he toured with Louis Armstrong, then remained in New York City at the end of the tour. He went on to join the Savoy Bearcats and, later, Charlie Turner’s Arcadians. Fats Waller assumed leadership of the Arcadians in the middle of the decade, and James played under him until 1937.
Finishing the Thirties decade playing in the Blackbirds Revue, in the early 1940s George worked with James P. Johnson, Benny Carter, Teddy Wilson, and Lucky Millinder. He led his own band in 1943-44 and later in the decade he played with Claude Hopkins and Noble Sissle.
He was active both as a leader and a sideman into the 1970s, playing with Clyde Bernhardt and the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band in that decade. Saxophonist, clarinetist, and flautist George James passed away on January 30, 1995 in Columbus, Ohio.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ernesto Caceres was born on November 22, 1911 in Rockport, Texas and learned to play the clarinet, guitar, alto and baritone saxophone. He first played professionally in 1928 in local Texas ensembles. He and his brother Emilio moved to Detroit, Michigan before moving to New York City, taking work as session musicians. In 1937 they made live nationwide appearances on Benny Goodman’s popular radio series Camel Caravan which created a sensation and made them jazz stars.
In 1938 Ernesto became a member of Bobby Hackett’s band, then worked as a sideman with Jack Teagarden and Glenn Miller’s orchestra from 1940 to 1942. While with Miller, he made an appearance in the films Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives. Time with Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, and Tommy Dorsey followed later in the 1940s. In 1949 he put together his own quartet, playing at the Hickory Log in New York. He was a frequent performer with the Garry Moore Orchestra on television.
At the beginning of the 1960s he played with the Billy Butterfield Band. In 1964 he moved back to Texas and played in a band with brother Emilio from 1968 until his death. He spent some time in 1965 and 1966 at Mint Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada and at the Holiday Hotel in Reno, Nevada with the Johnny Long Band. Saxophonist, clarinetist and guitarist Ernesto Caceres passed away from cancer on January 10, 1971.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edward Thomas Harvey was born on November 15, 1925 in Blackpool, England, but grew up in Sidcup, where he attended Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School. At the age of 16, he began studying engineering in nearby Crayford and took his first professional job as a musician playing trombone with George Webb and his Dixielanders, a pioneering UK traditional jazz band.
After the World World War II, Harvey joined Freddy Randall and also began performing at Club Eleven in London, England with a number of young musicians, among them Ronnie Scott and John Dankworth who were beginning to experiment with the bebop style that they had picked up from US musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
When the Dankworth Seven formed in 1950, Harvey was a founder member and the percussionist vocalist Frank Holder was also featured in this group. He stayed until 1953, performing on both piano and trombone, and spent the 1950s performing and recording with a number of important UK jazz groups including bands led by Tubby Hayes, Vic Lewis, Don Rendell, and Woody Herman. He also began arranging for groups like Jack Parnell’s Orchestra.
From 1963 to 1972 Eddie was pianist with the Humphrey Lyttelton band. During that time of the early 1970s he also became interested in teaching jazz. His jazz piano course at the City Lit was one of the first jazz education courses in Europe. This led to his writing Teach Yourself Jazz Piano, which was published in the Teach Yourself series. After ten years teaching Music at Haileybury College in Hertfordshire, he accepted the newly created role of Head of Jazz at the London College of Music. Later teaching posts included the Guildhall and Royal Colleges of Music.
Pianist, trombonist, arranger and educator Eddie Harvey, who never led a recording session but was the inspiration for the Richmond Canoe Club Walking Division, passed away on October 9, 2012.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steve Lane was born on November 7, 1921 in London, England where his father was a concertina player who recorded with the Rio Grande Tango Orchestra in the 1920s. Having heard his first jazz in the Rhythm Clubs of the late 1930s, his first choice of instrument was guitar, but, following wartime service, he switched to the cornet on which he soon developed a jazz style based on the hot trumpeters of the 1920s he so much admired, with particular emphasis on his role leading the collective ensemble.
A gifted composer of vocal and instrumental pieces, he deftly incorporated female vocalists as an integral part of the band, thus presenting a range of songs carefully chosen to showcase the singer, and the supporting musicians strictly trained in the art of accompaniment. A taskmaster offering little compensation and weekly rehearsals, his personnel changed often but allowed him the ability to discover young talent such as pianists Martin Litton and Bruce Boardman and trombonist Bob Hunt.
Steve led his own Southern Stompers jazz band in the early 1950, and also led and recorded with his Red Hot Peppers and the VJM Washboard Band for over 50 years. In 1952 he established the Ealing Jazz Club, and in the Sixties establishe the West End Jazz Club and was a founding partner of VJM Records.
Cornetist, guitarist, composer, arranger and bandleader Steve Lane, who was a traditional jazz player, passed awya on August 22, 2015 at age 93.
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