Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Armand John “A.J.” Piron was born on August 16, 1888 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Octave Louis Piron and Marie Jeanne Zeringue. At home he spoke English and French patois, and grew up steps from Claiborne Avenue, which at that time was a bustling, tree-lined center of commerce and community life. His father, a shoemaker, was also a musician and music teacher and played in the Philharmonic Orchestra. He taught his sons Milford, Albert, and Armand how to play.
At the age of seven Piron had an accident that damaged one of his legs. For the next five years while he recovered, he devoted himself to practicing the violin. This could be the reason he didn’t join the numerous New Orleans marching bands popular at that time. Instead became a dance and concert band musician and at age twelve he made his musical debut by joining a band his father led that included some of his students and his brothers.
In 1903 A.J. began playing in the Bloom Philharmonic. In 1908 he played for the Peerless Orchestra. Then in 1913 he played in the large, legendary orchestra organized by John P. Robichaux for the Carnival ball of the Elves of Oberon. That same year he played at the Rose Bud Theater on Dryades Street, sometimes with Papa Celestin’s Tuxedo band. He also played in the Olympia Band with Sydney Bechet, Kid Ory, Louis Keppard, and Clarence Williams, among others.
After touring briefly with W.C. Handy in 1917, Piron started an orchestra which included Lorenzo Tio, Steve Lewis, John Lindsay, and Peter Bocage. The theme song of the orchestra was The Purple Rose of Cairo, written by Piron and Steve Lewis. In 1923, Piron took his band to New York City.
Violinist A.J. Piron, who led dance bands during the 1910s through the 1930s, died on February 17, 1943 in New Orleans.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Froeba was born August 6, 1907 in New Orleans, Louisiana. While still in his teens he held jobs in the bands of Johnny Wiggs and John Tobin. By the age of 17 he played with Johnny de Droit in New York City in 1924-1925, then led his own band in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
In the latter half of the decade Frank moonlighted in other dance ensembles. He recorded with Jack Purvis in 1930 and with Jack Bland in 1932, then worked with Benny Goodman from 1933 to 1935. This was followed in 1935 to 1944 where he led his own band and played on recordings for Columbia and Decca. Among his sidemen were Bunny Berigan, Jack Purvis, Bobby Hackett and Joe Marsala.
He was a house pianist for Decca in the 1930s and 1940s, playing behind Bob Howard and Lil Armstrong, among others. In 1955, he moved to Miami, Florida and performed as Frank Froba, moving more into popular performance.
One of his more popular tracks, Jumpin’ Jive, which he co-wrote with Cab Calloway. It was recorded by Joe Jackson on his Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive album.
Pianist and bandleader Frank Froeba died on February 16, 1981 in Miami.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Floyd Maurice “Stumpy” Brady was born on August 4, 1910 in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. At the end of the 1920s he performed and recorded with Zack Whyte’s Chocolate Beau Brummels before touring with Al Sears. During the next decade he played with Andy Kirk in New York, recorded with Blanche Calloway, and returned briefly to Whyte’s band in 1933.
He replaced Ed Cuffee in McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, and then performed and recorded with Claude Hopkins from 1936 to 1938 and Teddy Wilson from 1939 to 1940. As a member of the Lucky Millinder orchestra, Stumpy played a solo while accompanying Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the soundie Lonesome Road in 1941.
Other musicians and bandleaders he worked with include Al Sears, Count Basie, Joe Guy touring with Billie Holiday in 1945, Jay McShann, Fletcher Henderson, Roy Eldridge, and Cat Anderson. After a period of inactivity in the 1950s, Brady resumed playing in the 1960s with Slide Hampton’s band, Luckey Roberts’s orchestra, and Edgar Battle’s big band.
Trombonist Stumpy Brady died on February 11, 1998.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mat Marucci was born Mathew Roger Marucci III on July 2, 1945 in Rome, New York into a musical family with his sister Mena, a concert pianist and his brother Ed, a trumpeter. He was classically trained on the piano and switched to drums at the age of 19.
After graduating high school from St. Aloysius Academy in 1963, Marucci studied drums with Dick Howard in Auburn, New York for two years. Receiving a business management degree at Auburn Community College in 1965, he relocated to the west coast four years later. Attending Sacramento City College in California, he received his associate degree in music, in 1973.
In addition to recording and performing, Marucci has authored several books on drumming for both Ashley Publications and Mel Bay Publications. His recordings and books have garnered four and five star reviews in JazzTimes, Jazziz, Modern Drummer, DownBeat and DRUM! magazines. He also wrote articles for several magazines and jazz websites.
In his role as a jazz educator, Mat has been a professor at several California colleges in Sacramento and Berkeley and an applied drum set instructor at the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society.
Drummer Mat Marucci, who has lived between New York City, Los Angeles and Sacramento and has recorded seventeen albums as a leader and eight as a sideman, continues to explore and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard M. Jones, born Richard Marigny Jones on June 13, 1892 in Donaldsonville, Louisiana and grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. Suffering from a stiff leg he walked with a limp, causing fellow musicians to give him the nickname “Richard My Knee Jones” as a pun on his middle name. In his youth he played alto horn in brass bands. His main instrument, however, became the piano and by 1908 he was playing in Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans. A few years later, he often led a small band which sometimes included Joe Oliver and also worked in the bands of John Robichaux, Armand J. Piron, and Papa Celestin.
In 1918, Jones moved to Chicago, Illinois where he worked as Chicago manager for publisher and pianist Clarence Williams. Jones began recording in 1923, making gramophone records as a piano soloist, accompanist to vocalists, and with his bands The Jazz Wizards and The Chicago Cosmopolitans. He recorded for Gennett, OKeh, Victor, and Paramount record labels in the 1920s.
He also worked for OKeh Records as supervisor of the company’s “Race” Records for most of the decade, separately the Caucasian artists from the Black. During this period he was the producer of Louis Armstrong’s influential Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings. In the 1930s, Jones performed a similar management role for Decca.
Pianist, composer, band leader, and record producer Richard M. Jones, sometimes written Richard Mariney Jones and who had numerous songs bearing his name as author, including Trouble in Mind and worked for Mercury Records until his death on December 8, 1945 in Chicago, at the age of 53.
