Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Carl Perkins was born August 16, 1928 in Indianapolis, Indiana and as a child suffered with polio. Overcoming a slightly crippled left hand he learned to play piano, holding his arm sideways over the keyboard. His early professional playing came touring with the big bands of Tiny Bradshaw and Big Jay McNeely but then he settled and worked mainly in Los Angeles, becoming a West Coast fixture from 1949 on.

Best known for his performances with the Curtis Counce Quintet, he performed alongside tenor saxophonist Harold Land, trumpeter Jack Sheldon and drummer Frank Butler. In 1954 Carl performed with the Clifford Brown-Max Roach group, and recorded with Frank Morgan in 1955.

Perkins recorded on as a leader for Savoy, Duotone, and Pacific Jazz labels between 1949 and 1957 and for the Boplicity label between 1955-56 titled “Introducing Carl Perkins”. He composed the jazz standard “Grooveyard” that was recorded in a 1958 session led by Harold Land.

Over the course of his short career absent of fame and beleaguered with drug addiction, Perkins recorded with Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Dizzy Gillespie, Jim Hall and Dexter Gordon to name a few.

Carl Perkins, known to be one of the best hard bop pianist of his day, died due to an untimely drug overdose at age 29 on March 17, 1958 in Los Angeles, California.

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