Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Vic Berton was born Victor Cohen on May 7, 1896 in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a violinist who began his son on string instruments around age five. He was hired as a percussionist at the Alhambra Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1903 when he was only seven years old. By 16, he was playing with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. While serving in World War I he played drums for John Philip Sousa’s Navy band.
In the early 1920s, Berton played in the Chicago bands of Art Kahn, Paul Beise, and Arnold Johnson. He led his own ensemble which played at the Merry Gardens club. 1924 saw him become the manager of The Wolverines, and occasionally played alongside Bix Beiderbecke in the ensemble. Later in the decade, he played with Roger Wolfe Kahn, Don Voorhees, Red Nichols and Paul Whiteman. He worked extensively as a session musicianbefore moving to Los Angeles, California in 1927.
During his time in Los Angeles he played with Abe Lyman and recorded in studios for film soundtracks. Vic served as director of Paramount Films’s music division for a period and worked in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 1940s, he worked as a percussionist in the studios for 20th Century Fox.
Drummer Vic Berton died on December 26, 1951 in Hollywood, California from lung cancer.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Duke Jones was born Albert Jones on May 6th in White Plains, New York. The nickname was given to him by his favorite aunt due to his love of music at an early age. He began learning trumpet at the age of nine and played in elementary school through high school. He formed a band with The Lewis Brothers and Sharon Bryant that ultimately became Atlantic Starr.
Jones attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, studying music and film. He worked the New York club circuit and continued his studies with traditional island rhythms, calypso and soca at the University of Virgin Islands. He was influenced by Kenny Dorham, Woody Shaw, Lee Morgan, Benny Bailey and Miles Davis.
He would go on to tour Japan, Europe and Africa, working with The Temptations, Angela Bofill, Larry Coryell and Marion Meadows. He has collaborated and recorded with August Darnell, and drummer Norman Connors. Duke served as Vice President of Creole Records, a label started with then band mate August Darnell (Kid Creole). In 2005, he formed Café Soul All-Stars, recording their debut album Love Pages which featured George Benson, Roy Ayers and Kenny Garrett among others.
Trumpeter and flugelhornist Duke Jones continues to perform, record and collaborate with his music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cal Collins was born on May 5, 1933 in Medora, Indiana and first played the mandolin professionally as a bluegrass musician in the early 1950s. After his Army service he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio he switched to jazz guitar after hearing swing guitarists Charlie Christian, Irving Ashby and Oscar Moore. He played in Cincinnati for twenty years.
In 1976 Benny Goodman hired him at the age of 43 and had a three year stint with the orchestra. Cal then spent three years making albums for Concord Jazz. As a leader and sideman, he worked with Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Rosemary Clooney, Ross Tompkins, Woody Herman, John Bunch, and Marshal Royal.
Returning to Cincinnati in the early Eighties, Collins slowed down his career. He joined the Masters of the Steel String Guitar Tour in 1993 with Jerry Douglas and Doc Watson. Over the course of his career he recorded a dozen albums as a leader with his debut recording being Cal Collins In San Francisco in 1978 on the Concord label.
He recorded twenty-eight albums with John Bunch, Rosemary Clooney, Concord Jazz All Stars, Concord Super Band, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Eiji Kitamura, Marshal Royal, Warren Vache, Bob Barnard, Michael Moore, Jimmy Madison, Kenny Poole, Scott Hamilton and Buddy Tate, Hank Marr, and Ross Tompkins.
In 2001, guitarist Cal Collins, who recorded his last album in 1998, died of liver failure on August 27th in Dillsboro, Indiana.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael DiPasqua was born May 4, 1953 born in Orlando, Florida into a highly musical family. He began his professional career very early, gigging as a drummer with a band co-led by Zoot Sims and Al Cohn while still in his mid-teens.
During the next few years DiPasqua played with Don Elliott and Gerry Mulligan, and also accompanied singers Jackie Cain and Roy Kral. Towards the end of the 70s, the drummer was for a number of years co-leader of Double Image, a vibraharp, marimba and bass quartet that toured internationally.
Michael then co-led Gallery and followed that with a spell in Later That Evening, a band led by Eberhard Weber, before joining Jan Garbarek. He was a consistently inventive percussionist with the ability to comfortably co-exist in a range of musical styles, from the modern end of the mainstream through jazz rock to the cutting edge of improvisational music.
He recorded three albums as a leader with his debut on the Inner City label in 1977. He went on to record as a sideman with Jan Garbarek for two albums, three with Eberhard Weber, and one each with Adelhard Roidinger and Robert Towner all for ECM. On a variety of other labels he recorded with Siegfried Fietz, Volker Kriegel, Marian McPartland, and Gerry Mulligan.
Beyond jazz, Michael was locally known for his role in helping to develop over 300 Subway Sandwich Shops in Central Florida, as well as co-founding PCMD Management Company, which owns and operates over 40 Subway franchises.
Cool jazz drummer and percussionist Michael DiPasqua lost his battle with cancer on August 29, 2016. He was 63.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Matt Bauder was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan on May 3, 1976 and attended the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas and earned a bachelor of fine arts in jazz and contemporary improvisation at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
From 1999 to 2001 he lived in Chicago, Illinois where he was a part of the city’s modern jazz and improvised music scene. Matt attended graduate school at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut studying under Anthony Braxton and received a master’s degree in composition. He lived in Berlin, Germany for a year, then moved to New York City in 2005.
In 2003, Bauder released his debut album, Weary Already of the Way, on 482 Music. His sophomore album in 2007 was the first album from his long-form improvisational jazz trio Memorize the Sky, featuring Bauder on saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet and percussion, Zach Wallace on bass, vibraphone and percussion, and Aaron Siegel on drums and percussion. The band released two more albums in 2008 and 2010.
His next trio, Hearing Things, had the saxophonist leading JP Schlegelmilch on organ and Vinnie Sperrazza on drums. Never limiting himself to one genre, Bauder’s next venture formed the doo-wop jazz group White Blue Yellow & Clouds, covering songs by the Beach Boys, The Flaminogos and The Mystics.
His Brooklyn-based jazz quintet Day in Pictures released two albums on Clean Feed Records, in which heplayed tenor saxophone and composed the songs on both albums. Matt has since performed as part of the Arcade Fire’s touring lineup, played saxophone and clarinet on Will Butler’s debut album Policy, and has played in the Broadway production of Fela!
Ever busy, saxophonist Matt Bauder continues to perform, compose and collaborate on numerous projects across genres.
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