Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cousin Joe was born Pleasant Joseph on December 20, 1907 in Wallace, Louisiana. He worked at Whitney Plantation throughout his childhood. Until 1945, he toured Louisiana, but that year he was asked to take part in the King Jazz recording sessions organized by Mezz Mezzrow and Sindey Bechet.
In the 1970s, Cousin Joe toured extensively throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, both individually and as part of the American Blues Legends ’74 revue organised by Big Bear Music. He also recorded the album Gospel-Wailing, Jazz-Playing, Rock’n’Rolling, Soul-Shouting, Tap-Dancing Bluesman From New Orleans for Big Bear.
Vocalist and pianist Cousin Joe transitioned in his sleep from natural causes in New Orleans, Louisiana at the age of 81 on October 2, 1989.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lurlean Hunter was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi on December 1, 1919 and was taken to Chicago, Illinois when she was two months old. She attended Englewood High School in Chicago.
Her first paid singing performance came when she appeared with Red Saunders and his orchestra at Club DeLisa on Chicago’s South Side. Hunter was signed by Discovery Records in 1950 and subsequently was a featured performer with George Shearing and his quintet at Birdland in New York City.
In 1951 Lurlean was among a group of rising young stars of jazz, that were presented at the Streamliner night club in Chicago. She performed at the Cloister Inn, where an initial four-week booking turned into a 2.5-year stay. She went on to work in New York and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Leaving Discovery, she began recording for Atlantic Records in 1961, with Blue and Sentimental as her first album for that label. She later recorded for RCA Victor. By 1963, Hunter became the first Black performer hired by WBBM radio in Chicago. After a successful on-air audition, she became a member of the staff of the all-live Music Wagon Show. Five years later the National Educational Television jazz broadcast featured her, accompanied by the Vernel Fournier Trio.
In 1958, she sued RCA Record Division after it used her image and her name on the cover of its, not her Lonesome Gal record album. The suit alleged “unfair competition, infringement of trade name, unfair business practices, unjust enrichment and invasion of the right of privacy.” Though the court acknowledged that the album contained the song “Lonesome Gal”, and that the use of one song’s title for an album’s title was common practice in the recording industry, it ruled in Hunter’s favor on the basis that she was the first person to “adopt and establish the name Lonesome Gal as a personality” and that name was exclusively associated with her. Damages of $22,500 were awarded to Hunter, and the company was ordered to destroy all material containing Hunter’s likeness in conjunction with “Lonesome Gal”.
Vocalist Lurlean Hunter, who was a contralto and made commercials for products such as peas and telephone directories, transitioned on March 11, 1983 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rosa Henderson was born Rosa Deschamps on November 24, 1896 in Henderson, Kentucky. Her career as an entertainer began in 1913 when she joined her uncle’s circus troupe. She married Douglas “Slim” Henderson in 1918 and began traveling with his Mason-Henderson show. As a musical comedian she started during the early 1920s after moving to New York City, where she performed on Broadway. She would eventually perform in London.
Over the course of nine years she recorded over one hundred songs beginning in 1923. During that time she sometimes used pseudonyms such as Sally Ritz, Flora Dale, Sarah Johnson, Josephine Thomas, Gladys White, and Mamie Harris. She was accompanied by the Virginians, Fletcher Henderson’s Jazz Five, Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, Fletcher Henderson’s Club Alabam Orchestra, the Choo Choo Jazzers, the Kansas City Five, the Three Jolly Miners, the Kansas City Four, the Three Hot Eskimos, and the Four Black Diamonds.
She recorded for Ajax Records, Columbia, Paramount, Victor, and Vocalion Records. Her recordings include Afternoon Blues, Doggone Blues, Do Right Blues, He May Be Your Dog But He’s Wearing My Collar, and Papa If You Can’t Do Better (I’ll Let a Better Papa Move In).
After 1926, due largely in part to the death of her husband her recordings became limited, however, she continued performing until 1932. At that point Rosa took a job in a New York department store, but continued to perform benefit concerts until the Sixties.
Unrelated to Fletcher, Horace, Katherine, or Edmonia Henderson, vocalist Rosa Henderson, who sang jazz, blues and was a vaudeville performer of the Harlem Renaissance era, transitioned from a heart attack in 1968 on April 6, 1968.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edward Bennett Coles was born October 29, 1910 in Montgomery, Alabama and was the second oldest of ten children and the oldest son. He studied both piano and bass from a young age and formed his first band at age 17. Three years later at age 20, he joined Noble Sissle’s band the Sizzling Syncopators, stayed there six years and performed with greats such as Sidney Bechet and Clarence Brereton.
After a tour of Europe in 1936, Cole left Sissle’s band to join his brother Nat’s group, the Rogues of Rhythm. He appeared in the TV show Bourbon Street Beat in 1959 and later appeared on The Law and Mr. Jones and The Jack Benny Program.
Retiring in the 1960s, bassist, pianist and vocalist Eddie Cole, who was a member of the Cole dynasty of Nat, Freddy and Ike, transitioned on June 18, 1970 at the age of 59 in Los Angeles, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gabrielle Goodman was born October 23, 1964 in Baltimore, Maryland and her early years of singing in church in Baltimore gave her the skillset to blend jazz and gospel. As a protege of Roberta Flack began her international performance career as a backing vocalist for Flack in the mid-1980s while at the Peabody Institute. She continued to tour and record with her mentor for several years opening for Miles Davis, Ray Charles, the Crusaders and other legends in Japan, Switzerland, Brazil and others around the world.
Goodman’s breakthrough as a solo recording artist happened when she appeared on Norman Connors 1988 album Passion on Capitol Records. She sang lead on five songs, which led to her recording two jazz albums Travelin’ Light in 1993 and Until We Love the following year with Kevin Eubanks, Christian Mcbride, Gary Bartz, Gary Thomas, and Terri Lyne Carrington.
It would be another ten years before she would drop her third album which landed in the soul jazz category ~ Angel Eyes, Songs From The Book and Spiritual Tapestry for the Goodness label. As a touring and performing solo artist she has played festivals and with symphony orchestras.
Goodman has written and arranged songs for Chaka Khan and Roberta Flack, performed alongside Dee Dee Bridgewater and Michael Buble, and also provided vocals for Patti Labelle, Nona Hendryx, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Patrice Rushen, Freddie Jackson, Bryan Ferry, and George Duke.
Vocalist, composer, author, and educator Gabrielle Goodman has a four-octave vocal range and has been an associate professor of voice at Berklee College of Music since 1998.
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