Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Washington was born October 18, 1907 in Brunswick, Georgia and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. He began playing trombone at age ten and attended Edward Waters College in the early-1920s.
Washington relocated to Philadelphia in 1925 and played with J.W. Pepper before moving to New York City shortly thereafter. In New York, he studied under Walter Damrosch at the New York Conservatory, playing with various ensembles in the late 1920s.
In 1931, he began playing with Don Redman, and gigged with Benny Carter in 1932 and Spike Hughes in 1933. In the mid-1930s, he played and arranged for the Mills Blue Rhythm Band and worked with Red Allen and Fletcher Henderson. From 1937 to 1943, he played in Louis Armstrong’s orchestra. After his tenure with Armstrong he moved to the West Coast, and played with Horace Henderson, Carter again, and Count Basie.
From 1947 he led his own ensemble, playing in California and the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. He and drummer Johnny Otis collaborated often, and in 1960 Washington worked with Joe Darensbourg. He did freelance work as a player and arranger later in his life. To date there is no record of his death
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Fritz Pauer was born on October 14, 1943 in Vienna, Austria and began his professional playing career as a teenager, performing with Hans Koller for two years beginning in 1960 before leading his own ensembles in Berlin, Germany. In the 1960s he played with Don Byas, Booker Ervin, Dexter Gordon, Friedrich Gulda, Annie Ross and Art Farmer, recording three albums with the latter as a sideman.
As an educator he taught at the Vienna Municipal Conservatory from 1968-1970, after which he became a member of the ORF-Big Band. The 1970s saw Fritz recording as a leader as well as with Klaus Weiss and Peter Herbolzheimer.
By the mid-1980s Pauer was living in Peru for a brief period, then moved to Switzerland in 1986. Later in life education once again entered his life and he became a university professor. An early 2000s collaboration with Jay Clayton and Ed Neumeister was released as the album 3 for the Road.
Pianist, composer and bandleader Fritz Pauer transitioned on July 1, 2012.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Luděk Hulan was born on October 11, 1929 in Prague, Czechoslovakia and started his career as a founder-member of the amateur Hootie Club ensemble in 1948. In the early Fifties he performed in various professional jazz ensembles and helped organize jam sessions in Prague. From 1953 to 1957 he moved to Brno and played double bass with the Gustav Brom Orchestra.
Upon his return to Prague he co-founded Studio 5, which later became a part of The Dance Orchestra of Czechoslovak Radio. Studio 5, one of the country’s most important modern jazz ensembles, disbanded in 1961. Then Hulan founded his next band, The Jazz Studio, which often performed his own short compositions. The late 1960s he still collaborated with the Jazz Orchestra of Czechoslovak Radio and actively participated in Czech musical life.
He was one of the pioneers of the Jazz and Poetry movement which focused on cross-connections between various spheres of the Arts. In his Jazz Studio, Luděk collaborated with many important jazz instrumentalists, among them tenor saxophonist Milan Ulrich and trumpeter Richard Kubernát.
Following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 he emigrated to Switzerland, but couldn’t find any work connected with music and soon returned while his wife and daughter remained abroad. Listed as politically undesirable he had to organize night-time jam sessions in the poetic wine bar Viola, founded a new band, Jazz Sanatorium with former colleagues from Jazz Studio, and helped its younger members in their careers.
He also found work – occasional at first – with the Linha Singers ensemble. In 1972 the Traditional Jazz Studio invited him to record with the New Orleans clarinetist Albert Nicholas. He also performed with the American clarinetist Tony Scott, and prepared a TV series, The Jazz Herbarium. He then organized the Jazz Quiz as part of his Jazz Sanatorium, using American films, recordings and literature.
Double bassist Luděk Hulan, an important exponent of Czech jazz in the second half of the 20th century, transitioned in Prague on February 22, 1979 under unhappy circumstances, breaking a rib in a stairway fall which pierced a lung. Unaware of the nature or extent of his injury, he went to bed as usual, not to awaken.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Freddie Jenkins was born on October 10, 1906 in New York City, New York and played in the Jenkins Orphanage Band when young before he attended Wilberforce University. Following this he played with Edgar Hayes and Horace Henderson between 1924 and 1928.
He then took a position in Duke Ellington’s Orchestra in 1928 where he soloed in the 1930 film Check and Double Check, during a performance of the song Old Man Blues. He remained with the Ellington Orchestra until 1935, when lung problems forced him to quit.
Recovered, he formed his own group in 1935, recording one session as a leader. His sidemen included Ward Pinkett, Albert Nicholas and Bernard Addison. After this he played with Luis Russell in 1936. Rejoining Ellington in 1937 he played with him for a year, then for a short time thereafter played with Hayes Alvis.
After 1938, his lung ailment returned and he retired again from performance. In his later years he worked as a songwriter, disc jockey, and in music press. He became a deputy sheriff in Fort Worth, Texas.
Trumpeter Freddie Jenkins transitioned in 1978.
Bestow upon an inquiring mind a dose of a New York City trumpeter to motivate the perusal of the genius of jazz musicians worldwide whose gifts contribute to the canon…
Freddie Jenkins: 1906~1978 | Trumpet
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Myron Pierman “Mynie” Sutton was born October 9, 1903 in Niagara Falls, Canada. He worked in dance ensembles in Buffalo, New York and Cleveland, Ohio between 1924 and 1931. Returning to Canada in 1931 he founded the Canadian Ambassadors in Aylmer, Quebec. This was one of very few black jazz bands based out of Canada in the 1930s.
The group operated out of Montreal, Canada from 1933, playing at Connie’s Inn, the Hollywood Club, and Cafe Montmartre. Additionally they toured Quebec and Ontario. Pianists in the ensemble included Lou Hooper and Buster Harding.
By 1941 the Ambassadors had disbanded and Sutton returned to his birthplace of Niagara Falls, where he played locally for decades. He made no commercial recordings. A collection of materials devoted to Sutton is held at the Concordia University library in Montreal.
Alto saxophonist and bandleader Mynie Sutton transitioned on June 17, 1982 in Niagara Falls.
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