Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rod Mason was born September 28, 1940 in Plymouth, England and as a young man played with the local Tamar Valley Jazz Band, in which his father, Frank “Pop” Mason, had played drums. At Kelly College, in Tavistock, England he played the bugle with the cadet corps, then the valve trombone. He played this in his father’s band until the trumpet player left, whereupon he replaced him using a brass-band style cornet.
He went on to play briefly with the Cy Laurie band from 1959 to 1960 and two years later went with Monty Sunshine who left the Chris Barber band to form his own group. Sunshine hired Mason on the recommendation of Kenny Ball. In the mid-1960s after leaving Sunshine, Rod worked in the family business and played occasionally, until a winning appearance on Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks TV talent show which led to a flood of offers.
A facial paralysis forced him to use other mouthpieces, which allowed him to extend the range of his instrument. In 1965, he established his own band. From 1970 he played in the Acker Bilk Paramount Jazz Band, before he founded a band together with Ian Wheeler in 1973. He recorded numerous recordings for the Reef label. The 1980s saw Mason playing in the Dutch Swing College Band. In 1985, he founded the Hot Five band and released a number of albums for Timeless Records and regularly toured Europe.
Trumpeter, cornetist, vocalist Rod Mason who recorded thirty-two albums as a leader, played his last gig in Kaarst, Germany in December 2016 and died three weeks later on January 8, 2017 after developing peritonitis and pneumonia.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John L. Thomas was born September 18, 1902 in Louisville, Kentucky but relocated to Chicago, Illinois as a child where he received his formal education. He slid into on-stage trombone performances with the Clarence Miller Orchestra around 1923. Between 1927 and 1928 he worked with Erskine Tate, leading to Louis Armstrong’s Hot Seven. He continued freelancing with a wide range of classic jazz bandleaders Freddie Keppard, Tate and Reuben Reeves.
He was briefly with McKinney’s Cotton Pickers in the Thirties and in 1937 he was part of a touring revue fronted by pianist and singer Nat King Cole. Thomas was once again with Tate as well as drummer Floyd Campbell’s outfit. During WWII he gave up his trombone case for a tool box in a defense plant.
His performance hiatus from playing took place prior to dropping out completely during the ’50s, as he did gig once again in a group led by guitarist Walter Dysett in 1944. Trombonist John L. Thomas died on November 7, 1971 in Chicago, Illinois.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Hawdon was born in Leeds, England on August 27, 1927 and first studied cello before moving to trumpet in his mid-teens. After a stint with the Yorkshire Jazz Band he relocated to London, England in 1951, signing on with Chris Barber’s famed New Orleans Jazz Band.
Hawdon replaced trumpeter Ken Colyer in the Christie Brothers Stompers in 1952, remaining with the group for close to two years. While his Louis Armstrong-inspired approach earned favor among traditional jazz purists, he developed a modernist sensibility influenced by Clifford Brown.
Bop and progressive jazz followed in 1954 as a member of Don Rendell’s group in addition to a stint as trumpeter and arranger with Tubby Hayes. He joined his first big band in mid-1956 with Basil and Ivor Kirchin and the next year he joined John Dankworth in 1957. This would be his longest and most rewarding career collaboration.
Beyond recordings with Dankworth, the group performed with Louis Armstrong, teamed with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, he wrote and arranged a number of Dankworth staples including Cool Kate and One for Janet. Hawdon went on to freelance with bandleaders Sid Phillips, Harry Gold, Oscar Rabin, Terry Lightfoot, and backed singers Tony Bennett and Eartha Kitt during a stint with the house band at the London cabaret Talk of the Town.
On the eve of the demise of jazz as the leading music of the era, Dick relocated to Yorkshire, England in 1967 and led the Batley Variety Club’s house band. A year later, he developed a jazz course at the new City of Leeds College of Music, and became head of the school’s Light Music Department in 1972. Hawdon also led his own jazz quintet throughout the 1980s, and after retiring from academia in 1993 he turned his attention to the bass, playing in a series of local groups.
Trumpeter and bassist Dick Hawdon died June 24, 2009.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alphonse “Alphonso” Trent was born on August 24, 1905 in Fort Smith, Arkansas and played piano from childhood, working in local bands in Arkansas through his youth.
He led his first band in the mid-1920s, possibly as early as 1923. In 1924 he played with Eugene Cook’s Synco Six, then took over leadership of the band until 1934. They played mostly in the American South and Midwest, as well as on steamboats.
Despite success in New York around 1930, Trent chose not to work further on the East Coast. He left music in the mid-1930s but returned with another band in 1938. His sidemen included Terrence Holder, Alex Hill, Stuff Smith, Snub Mosley, Charlie Christian, Sweets Edison, Mouse Randolph, and Peanuts Holland.
As a leader he only recorded eight sides: four in 1928, two in 1930, and two in 1933. His small recorded legacy has made him a somewhat obscure figure today, but the sophistication of his arrangements and the precision with which they were executed inspired awe in contemporaries.
Pianist and territory band leader Alphonso Trent, who performed in the biggest and finest hotels in the South, died on October 14, 1959.
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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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