Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tony Fruscella was born February 4, 1927 in Orangeburg, New York and grew up in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York. He played in an Army band early in his career. He worked as a sideman in the 1950s for Charlie Barnet, Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, and Stan Getz.
He played with Don Joseph later in the 1950s, but by the early 1960s his problems with drug abuse and alcoholism prevented him from performing. Fruscella released one album, I’ll Be Seeing You in 1955, as a leader during his lifetime. It was recorded with Allen Eager and Danny Bank for Atlantic Records.
He married singer Morgana King, however it ended in divorce after nine years. Trumpeter Tony Fruscella died on August 14, 1969 at 42 years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Claude Ranger was born in Montréal, Canada on February 3, 1941 and studied drums briefly with several teachers and arranging with Frank Mella. Beginning his career with Montréal show bands, he was a leading figure among the city’s jazz musicians by the mid-1960s.
A sideman to Lee Gagnon, Pierre Leduc, and Ron Proby among others, Claude led the bands heard on the CBC’s Jazz en Liberté. He was a member of Aquarius Rising with Brian Barley, Michel Donato and Daniel Lessard from 1969 to 1971. Moving to Toronto, Canada he lived there for fifteen years beginning in 1972. It was here that Claude was a member of the Moe Koffman Quintet and accompanied Canadian and U.S. musicians when they came through the city, such as, Lenny Breau, George Coleman, Larry Coryell, Sonny Greenwich, James Moody, Doug Riley, Don Thompson, and Phil Woods.
His own bands appeared at the Music Gallery, Jazz City, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM) and the Ottawa International Jazz Festival. A Ranger quintet was a finalist in the 1986 FIJM, receiving a special jury citation for his drumming. Relocating to Vancouver, Canada he served as a mainstay of the du Maurier International Jazz Festival, again as an accompanist to Canadian and U.S. musicians and as a leader of his own groups.
West Coast musicians Ron Samworth, Clyde Reed, Bruce Freedman and drummer Dylan vander Schyff also influenced Claude’s career. He was considered a jazz musician and drummer with natural swing, in the bebop-based tradition of Max Roach. Displaying great stamina, he sometimes worked against the grain of jazz in Canada. His ensembles ranged from a trio to the 15 and 19-piece Jade Orchestra that debuted at the 1990 Vancouver festival.
Ranger played a role in Canada similar to the one created by Art Blakey in the US – that of a veteran musician whose bands served as an important platform for the development of younger players. His discography included recordings by Allen, Barley, Breau, Gagnon, Greenwich, Koffman, Riley, Thompson, Jane Bunnett, P.J. Perry, Herb Spanier, Michael Stuart, and U.S. musicians Dave Liebman, and Michael Munoz.
Drummer, composer, arranger, and teacher Claude Ranger continues to pursue his career in music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeffrey Ovid Clyne was born on January 29, 1937 in London, England and taught himself double bass from the age of 17. He played in the 3rd Hussars military band during his national service from 1955 to 1957, and on demobilisation found himself at the cutting edge of the British modern-jazz and bebop movement.
Clyne worked with Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott in their group the Jazz Couriers for a year from 1958, and was part of the group of musicians who opened Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in November 1959. He was a regular member of Hayes’ groups from 1961. He accompanied Blossom Dearie, Stan Tracey on his Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood album, Ian Carr, and Gordon Beck on Experiments With Pops, with John McLaughlin.
Jeff would go on to perform with Dudley Moore, Zoot Sims, Norma Winstone, John Burch and Marion Montgomery. He was a member of Nucleus, Isotope, Gilgamesh, Giles Farnaby’s Dream Band and Turning Point during the 1970s. He often worked with drummer Trevor Tomkins.
Bass guitar and double bassist Jeff Clyne died on November 16, 2009 from a heart attack at the age of 72.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Anthony Meldonian was born January 27, 1930 in Providence, Rhode Island. He first began playing the clarinet when he was eight years old and by eleven was proficient on the tenor saxophone. In 1944 he led his first band that he formed.
1949 saw Dick working as a professional musician in the bands of Freddie Slack, and into the Fifties with Charlie Barnet and as an alto saxophonist with Stan Kenton alongside Bud Shank and Art Pepper. He also played with Shorty Rogers, Nat Pierce, Elliot Lawrence and Bill Russo.
Moving to New York City in the mid 1950s, Meldonian worked as a studio and session musician, among other things. with Phil Sunkel, Sam Most and Erroll Garner. In 1957 he was a member of Paul Quinichette’s band with Gene Roland and John Carisi. In 1960 he joined the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band.
He became better known as the leader of his own quartet, The Jersey Swingers , in the late 1970s and through the big band that he led with drummer Sonny Igoe in the early 1980s. During this time, Dick also recorded with the big band and smaller formations under his own name for the Progressive, Circle and Statiras labels. In 1992 he was still working with Harry DiVito and Marty Grosz.
Soprano and tenor saxophonist Dick Meldonian died on January 25, 2017.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sophia Domancich was born January 25, 1957 in Paris, France and began learning piano at the age of six. She attended the Conservatoire de Paris from 1968 to 1975 where she won first prize for piano and chamber music. She began her career as an accompanist in vocal and dance lessons, with the Paris Opera and the Théâtre de Caen.
In 1979 she met Steve Lacy, Bernard Lubat and Jean-Louis Chautemps who introduced her to the world of jazz and improvisation. By 1982 she formed a duet with Laurent Cugny and joined the big band Lumiére. She later participated in Quoi D’Neuf Docteur? with Steve Grossman, Glenn Ferris and Jack Walrath.
The following year during a brief collaboration with the group Anaïd, she met several English musicians from the Canterbury scene, drummer Pip Pyle, saxophonist Elton Dean and bassist Hugh Hopper, forming the group L’Equip Out in late 1984. The group included for a time a fifth member, Didier Malherbe on the flute and the tenor saxophone. In 1990, L’Equip Out recorded a second album, Up!, with bassist Paul Rogers.
With the latter and drummers Bruno Tocanne and Tony Levin, she formed the Sophia Domancich Trio with which she toured for eight years and recorded five studio albums. Also with Rogers, she created a 1995 quartet with the original composition, this time with two trumpeters, Patrick Fabert and Jean-François Canape.
Through the 1990s and into the new century, Domancich continued collaborating and recording with John Greaves and Vincent Courtois’ Trouble with Happiness, and with Simon Goubert. She was a pianist under Didier Levallet in the Orchester National de Jazz. In 2000 she formed the Quintet Pentacle, in 2006 the Trio DAG (Domancich, Avenel, Goubert) creating three albums as a trio and an album “free 4 DAG” with saxophonist Dave Liebman. Sophia ventured into electronic music, formed three more groups to continue to express herself through her music.
She became the first woman to receive the Prix Django Reinhardt from the Jazz Academy as French Musician of the Year. By 2007 found herself included in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture collaborative book, 100 Jazz Titles, that included her 2002 Pentacle Quintet release.
She has recorded 10 albums as a leader, 7 as a co-leader and 20 as a member of other groups. Pianist and jazz composer Sophia Domancich continues to compose, explore, perform and reinvent herslf.
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