Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dewey Jackson was born on June 21, 1900. A trumpeter and cornetist, he began playing professionally at an early age, with the Odd Fellows Boys’ Band in 1912, then Tommy Evans from 1916-17 and George Reynold’s Keystone Band.
He played the riverboats with Charlie Creath and then led his own Golden Melody Band from 1920 to 1923. He continued to be a regular performer on riverboats into the early 1940s, heading his own groups and working as a sideman for Creath and Fate Marable. His only major stint off boats during this time was in 1926, when he played for four months with Andrew Preer at the Cotton Club in New York City.
Jackson played little in the 1940s but returned to work in the 1950s with Singleton Palmer and Don Ewell. He recorded only four sides as a leader in 1926. Among his sidemen were Pops Foster, Willie Humphrey, Don Stovall, Morris White and Clark Terry.
Dewey Jackson passed away on January 1, 1994.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sidney De Paris was born on May 30, 1905 in Crawfordsville, Indiana, the younger brother of trombonist Wilbur De Paris. A distinctive trumpeter who fit into both New Orleans jazz and swing settings, he was particularly expert with mutes. He was also a versatile musician, playing tuba, cornet, flugelhorn and singing from time to time.
From 1926 on into the Sixties, Sidney worked with Charlie Johnson’s Paradise Ten, Don Redman, Zutty Singleton, Benny Carter, Art Hodes, Jelly Roll Morton and Sidney Bechet. He recorded on the famed Panassie sessions of 1938 and as a leader recorded some highly enjoyable and freewheeling sessions in the Forties for Commodore and Blue Note.
He played with his brother Wilbur’s New New Orleans Jazz Band through the ’50s before ill health forced his retirement in the 1960s. Trumpeter Sidney De Paris passed away on September 13, 1967 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ellis Larkins was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 15, 1923. The pianist was the first African American to attend the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore and began his professional playing career in New York City after moving there to attend the Julliard School. Following school Larkins performed with Billy Moore and Edmond Hall.
He recorded with Coleman Hawkins, Mildred Bailey and Dickey Wells in the 1940s, Ruby Braff and Ella Fitzgerald in the Fifties recording “Ella Sings Gershwin” and “Songs In A Mellow Mood” with the latter. His 1960s work included recordings and/or performances with Eartha Kitt, Joe Williams, Helen Humes, George Gibbs and Harry Belafonte.
Though he was best known as an accompanist, Larkins recorded several solo albums in the 1950s. In the 1970s he performed regularly at several New York venues, including Gregory’s, a small bar in the east 70s. Next to Jimmy Jones, traditional jazz fans regard him as one of the most lyrical and romantic pianists in jazz history. Ellis Larkins passed away on September 30, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Aaron Lewis was born in LaGrange, Illinois on May 3, 1920 but was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He learned classical music and piano from his mother starting at the age of seven, then continued his musical training at the University of New Mexico and also studied anthropology. He served in the Army stationed in France during World War II and during his three-year tour of duty he met and performed with Kenny Clarke. Together they formed a band and in the bop style, John composed and arranged.
After the war he went to New York where he found work in the 52nd Street clubs with Allen Eager, Hot Lips Page and others. This led to him joining dizzy Gillespie’s bop-style big band and further developing his skill as a composer and arranger while matriculating through the Manhattan School of Music. He soon returned to Europe on tour, remained a continued to write and study piano. By ’48 he was back in the States playing with Charlie Parker, Illinois Jacquet, Lester Young, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald.
Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, drummer Kenny Clarke, and bassist Ray Brown had been the small group within the Gillespie big band that played their own short sets when the brass and reeds needed a break. This led to the foursome forming a full-time working group in 1950, known at first as the Milt Jackson Quartet. After replacing Brown with Percy Heath the name was changed to the Modern Jazz Quartet and assuming the role of musical director from 1954 to 1974, John oriented it toward a quiet, chamber style of music that found a balance between his gentle, almost mannered compositions and Jackson’s more elemental writing and playing.
Over a long and illustrious career, John directed the School of Jazz at the Music Inn, was musical director for the Monterey Jazz Festival from 1958 to 1982, taught at City College of New York and Harvard University, rejoined the re-formed MJQ, led his own sextet, founded the American Jazz Orchestra, participated in Re-Birth of the Cool, was involved in various Third Stream Projects all while continuing to teach, compose and perform.
John Lewis, conservative bop pianist, composer, arranger and musical director for the Modern Jazz Quartet passed away in New York City on March 29, 2001.
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Daily Dose OF Jazz…
Ward Pinkett was born on April 29, 1906, the son of an amateur cornet player. He started playing the trumpet when he was ten years old. He played in the school band at Hampton Institute and later attended the New Haven Conservatory of Music.
After working with the White Brothers Orchestra in Washington, D. C. he moved to New York City and played for brief periods with the bands of Charlie Johnson, Willie Gant, Billy Fowler, Henri Saparo, Joe Steele and Charlie Skeete.
During his stint with Jelly Roll Morton in 1928–30, he participated in seven of Morton’s recording sessions and his solos on “Strokin’ Away” and “Low Gravy” that are considered by music historians to be the best of his career. He also worked with Chick Webb, Bingie Madison, Rex Stewart and Teddy Hill but was never able to achieve fame.
By 1935 he teamed with Albert Nicholas and Bernard Addison at Adrian Rollini’s Tap Room and also had a short stint with Louis Metcalf’s Big Band. He recorded with King Oliver, Bubber Miley, Clarence Williams, the Little Ramblers and James P. Johnson.
Ward Pinkett died of alcoholism-aggravated pneumonia on March 15, 1937 just six weeks short of his thirty-first birthday.
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