Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Abene ( was born July 2, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up in a musical family he was influenced and inspired by his father, grandfather, and aunt who were musicians. He studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music
His reputation for accompanying singers and for arranging music led Michael to accompany Susannah McCorkle, Julius La Rosa, and others. His debut album was a solo piano project recorded in 1984 and released in 1986 titled You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.
He recorded with Maynard Ferguson, Dizzy Gillespie, Cal Tjader during the Sixties and Urbie Green in the Seventies. Abene co-produced the album Avant Gershwin, which won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2007.
Pianist Michael Abene continues to perform, produce and conduct.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thore Swanerud was born June 18, 1919 in Stockholm, Sweden. He started out his professional career playing extensively with major Swedish dance bands in the 1940s, such as those of Simon Brehm, Miff Görling, and Stan Hasselgård.
In 1949-1951 Thore led his own six-piece ensemble, then led smaller groups in the 1950s and 1960s. His associations include work with Ernestine Anderson and James Moody.
He is best remembered for an eight-bar improvised solo he made during a 1949 recording of I’m In The Mood For Love, in a quintet headed by Moody while touring Sweden. Eddie Jefferson created the 1952 song Moody’s Mood For Love in vocalese style by adapting lyrics to Moody’s song. The song later became a jazz standard, covered by many singers.
Pianist, vibraphonist, arranger, conductor, and composer Thore Swanerud, who scored three films, appeared in two and recorded five albums and five singles, transitioned in Stockholm on December 8, 1988.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Joseph Harold Holmes was born in Montreal, Canada on June 8. 1916 and began playing cornet at 10, briefly studying with C. Van Camp. After playing trumpet for a year in 1940 in a co-operative band, the Escorts, he took over its leadership 1941-50.
Under the name Johnny Holmes Orchestra, they played Saturday nights at Victoria Hall in Montreal, broadcasted on CBC radio, and occasionally toured Canada’s Quebec and Ontario. One of Montreal’s leading dance bands of the day, it boasted a healthy jazz quotient and benefited from Holmes’ ability to identify talented young musicians. His sidemen included, at various times, Nick Ayoub, Al Baculis, Percy and Maynard Ferguson, Bud Hayward, Art Morrow, and Oscar Peterson. Lorraine McAllister and Sheila Graham, in turn, sang with the band.
Retiring from music from 1951 to 1959, he reemerged and from 1959 to 1969 was heard on CBC radio in The Johnny Holmes Show, Broadway Holiday, and others. Holmes’ orchestras made several broadcast recordings between 1966 and 1973 for the CBC’s LM series. He continued to perform periodically until his final retirement from music in 1978.
Trumpeter, bandleader, arranger, composer Johnny Holmes, who wrote more than 40 songs and many arrangements for his orchestra and his radio shows and has no available recordings online, transitioned on June 11, 1989.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Robert Munro was born on May 22, 1917 in Christchurch, New Zealand. While in his teens he became quite proficient on several saxophones and by 21 had moved to Sydney, Australia where he played in the bands led by Myer Norman and Wally Parks. In addition he worked as a sideman on various nightclub, theater, and ship gigs.
Serving in the military during World War II, Charlie went on to work with Wally Norman at the Roosevelt nightclub in Sydney. In 1950 he played with Bob Gibson, then joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s dance band in 1954, continuing to perform with the group through 1976 as a composer and arranger.
He worked extensively with Bryce Rohde in the 1960s, participating in many of Rohde’s Australian jazz experiments. He led his own bands toward the end of his career, and also worked with Georgina de Leon.
Saxophonist and flutist Charlie Munro, who also played the cello and delved into free jazz movement, transitioned on December 9, 1985, in Sydney.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Allen Nicholas Farnham was born May 19, 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts and first played piano when he was 12. In 1983 he graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio.
Moving to New York City in the following year Allen freelanced before signing with Concord Records in 1986. Between 1986 and 1990 he led his own quartet, with either Joe Lovano or Dick Oatts on saxophone and Drew Gress and Jamey Haddad filling out the rhythm section and from 1990 he was pianist and music director for Susannah McCorkle.
He has produced more than fifty albums, is on the faculty of New Jersey City University and has recorded several albums under his own name. Pianist, record producer, educator, composer and arranger Allen Farnham continues to pursue all his musical endeavors.
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