Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billy Butler was born William Butler Jr. on December 15, 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began his career in the 1940s behind the Harlemaires. The 1950s saw him as a member of a trio led by Doc Bagby and accompanied keyboardist Bill Doggett.
Butler worked with Al Casey, King Curtis, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Bill Davison, Tommy Flanagan, Panama Francis, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Johnny Hodges, Floyd “Candy” Johnson, David “Fathead” Newman, Houston Person, Sammy Price, Jimmy Smith, Norris Turney, and Dinah Washington.
He is credited as the guitarist on the 1961 Peppermint Twist, Parts 1 & 2 by Joey Dee and the Starliters at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City. He co-wrote Honky Tonk, an R&B hit for Doggett.
Guitarist Billy Butler transitioned on March 20, 1991 from a heart attack at home in Teaneck, New Jersey.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Theodore Guy Buckner was born on December 14, 1913 in St. Louis, Missouri but was raised in Detroit, Michigan where he played very early in his career before joining McKinney’s Cotton Pickers.
He became a member of the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra, remaining from 1937 to 1943. After working with Lunceford, Buckner primarily played locally in Detroit, where he worked well into the 1970s. He played in small jazz combos, worked in the Motown studios, and co-led a big band with Jimmy Wilkins, Ernie Wilkins’s brother.
He toured Europe in 1975, and also appeared in the New McKinney’s Cotton Pickers that decade. Saxophonist Ted Buckner, who was the older brother of pianist Milt Buckner, transitioned on April 12, 1976 in Detroit.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edward Emanuel Barefield was born on December 12, 1909 in Scandia, Iowa, and grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. His father was a guitarist, his mother a pianist. He began playing the saxophone at the age of twelve when his mother bought him the instrument as a Christmas gift, and he took it apart to see how it worked.
He started playing throughout the Midwest, and gained his first major big-band experience with the Bennie Moten Orchestra of 1932. This led to work with Zach Whyte’s band and at 24 was offered a position in Cab Calloway’s orchestra in 1933. Eddie arranged and wrote music for Calloway for over 40 years.
Barefield conducted the orchestra for Ella Fitzgerald after Chick Webb passed away in 1939. In addition, he performed with McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, Les Hite, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, and Benny Carter. After the end of the big band era he continued to work by conducting shows, free-lancing, and playing in Europe.
He was the musical director for the original Broadway production of Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. He spent a decade in the band of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and composed and arranged for Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, and Jimmy Dorsey. Later in his life, Barefield worked with the Illinois Jacquet big band. Eddie appeared in films, including Cab Calloway’s Hi-De-Ho, Al Jolson’s The Singing Kid, Every Day’s a Holiday, and The Night They Raided Minsky’s.
Saxophonist, clarinetist and arranger Eddie Barefield, who arranged for the ABC Orchestra, transitioned from a heart attack at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on January 4, 1991.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marky Markowitz was born Irwin Markowitz but also known as Irving Markowitz on December 11, 1923 in Washington, DC. The youngest of seven children of Russian-Jewish immigrants, he learned the trumpet at the local Police Boys’ Club. He played early in his career in a number of big bands during the Forties, including those of Charlie Spivak, Jimmy Dorsey, Boyd Raeburn, and Woody Herman. He played in Buddy Rich’s orchestra in 1946–47, then returned to service under Herman in 1947–48.
Moving his family from Washington, D.C. to New York City in 1958 he eventually settled in Nyack, New York where he worked primarily as a studio musician in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. During this period in his career he did appear on stage with Herman, Gene Krupa, Lee Konit, Ralph Burns, George Russell, Al Cohn, Paul Desmond, and Bill Evans. Marky was a first call trumpeter for many top artists of the time including Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, the Young Rascals, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Maynard Ferguson, George Segal, and many others. He played as well on hundreds of advertising jingles, TV ads and movie scores.
He was a perennial on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, had a vocal impression of Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, and performed in his hometown with an All-Star band, led by Nelson Riddle, at the Inaugural Ball for President Ronald Reagan’s 2nd term.
Trumpeter and flugelhornist Marky Markowitz, who recorded one album as a leader titled Marks Vibes, transitioned on November 18, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pekka Juhani Pöyry was born on December 10, 1939 in Helsinki, Finland and became interested in jazz music at school and began studying the violin and clarinet. However, he was more taken with playing the alto saxophone, having been inspired by Charlie Parker. In addition, he played the flute and soprano saxophone.
After graduating with a Master of Laws in 1966, Pöyry decided to become a professional musician. In the same year he represented YLE, Finland’s national public broadcasting company at EBU’s concert in London, England. By the mid-1960s, he had his own quartet with pianist Eero Ojanen, bassist Teppo Hauta-aho and drummer Reino Laine. Joining the group was Norwegian-Finnish singer Pia Skaar to form a quintet, going on to perform at festivals and gain recognition from the likes of Bill Evans.
Increasingly interested in progressive rock and jazz fusion in the late 1960s and 1970s, with his later groups he attempted an international breakthrough, including the Reading Festival in England in 1973. However, his band Tasavallan Presidentti, broke up in 1974.
By 1975, Pekka was touring northern Europe with the North Jazz Quintet, later joining the orchestra of Heikki Sarmanto, later the UMO Jazz Orchestra, playing in what was then Yugoslavia, as well as, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States with other bands.
Saxophonist and flutist Pekka Pöyry, was part of the Pekka Pöyry Quartet and Quintet, being a manic depressive committed suicide and transitioned in Helsinki on August 4, 1980. The Pekka Pöyry Award is named in his honor and given to young, talented saxophonists in Finland since the early-1980s.
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