Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leslie Allen was born on August 29, 1902 in Ealing, London, England and at the age of 3, he and his family moved to Canada. As a child, he played clarinet alongside his father in the Queen’s Own Rifles Band and later learned to play the saxophone. He performed with the dance bands of Burton Till and Luigi Romanelli and in 1922 worked briefly in New York City before travelling to England in 1924 as part of a band of fellow Canadians recruited by Hal Swain. Intending his band to play at the Rector’s Club in London, once there, he found it closed.
The band found a residency at the New Prince’s restaurant in Piccadilly and became The New Princes Toronto Band. Under this name, they recorded for Columbia Records for eighteen months with Allen serving as alto saxophonist and occasional vocalist. Between 1926 and 1927, Allen joined several of his NPTB colleagues on a European tour where they performed as Dave Caplin’s Toronto Band under the leadership of banjoist Caplin.
After returning to England in 1927, Allen spent the next five years playing and singing with several leading British dance orchestras, including those of Carroll Gibbons, George Melachrino and Geraldo and making a number of freelance recordings, with duets with Al Bowlly.
In 1932, he joined Henry Hall’s BBC Dance Orchestra as a featured vocalist and enjoyed national hits with The Sun Has Got His Hat On and Auf Wiedersehen My Dear. Parting ways with Hall in 1934, he began a solo career, scoring hits with Tell Me Tonight, Love Is The Sweetest and the children’s ballad, Little Man You’ve Had A Busy Day on which his wife Anne and son Norman had speaking parts.
In 1935, he starred in the musical comedy Heat Wave, subsequently formed his own bands, the Les Allen Melody Four and the male voice singing group, Les Allen & His Canadian Bachelors, with fellow countrymen lead singer Jack Curtis, tenor Herbie King, and baritone and arranger Cy Mack.
During World War II, Les travelled and entertained Canadian troops. After the war, he played the juvenile lead in the 1945 revival of Miss Hook of Holland before returning to Toronto, Canada in 1948, where he started a second career in the office supply trade. Retiring in 1971, alto saxophonist and vocalist Les Allen transitioned in Toronto on June 25, 1996.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louis Freddie Kohlman was born on August 25, 1918 in New Orleans, Louisiana and studied under the famed drummer Louis Cottrell, Sr., and Manuel Manetta. He began playing professionally as a teenager, working with A. J. Piron, Joe Robichaux, Papa Celestin, and Sam Morgan.
Moving to Chicago, Illinois in the middle of the 1930s, he played with Albert Ammons, Stuff Smith, Earl Hines, and Lee Collins. After returning to New Orleans in 1941, he led his own band from 1944. Among the musicians in his band was pianist Dave “Fat Man” Williams. In the mid-1950s he played briefly with Louis Armstrong and recorded as a leader with the Jambalaya Four in 1953. He moved back to Chicago and became the house drummer at Jazz, Ltd. There he played with everyone from Billie Holiday to Art Hodes before once again returning to New Orleans in the 1960s.
Back home he played with Louis Cottrell, Jr., the Dukes of Dixieland, and the Onward Brass Band. In 1969 he appeared at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. As a member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, he traveled throughout the United States and overseas.[1]
Playing European festivals with his own groups in the 1970s and 1980s, Freddie recorded with Chris Barber and Dr. John in 1980, and also appears on record with Albert Nicholas, Art Hodes, Bob Wilber, Harry Connick, Jr., the Excelsior Brass Band, and the Heritage Hall Jazz Band.
Kohlman appeared in several films, including Pete Kelly’s Blues, Pretty Baby and Angel Heart.
Drummer, vocalist and bandleader Freddie Kohlman transitioned of cancer at his home in New Orleans, aged 72 on September 29, 1990.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bryan Spring was born on August 24, 1945 in London, England. A self-taught drummer beginning at the age of six, he later studied with Philly Joe Jones. He led and co-led his own trios and quartets from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s with Don Weller and also Art Themen.
The new millennium saw Bryan collaborating with Mark Edwards and Andy Cleyndert. He has been a member of Bill Le Sage’s Bebop Preservation Society, Alan Skidmore’s Quartet, Klaus Doldinger’s Passport, and various line-ups led by Stan Tracey.
He has worked with other leading British jazz musicians, including Tubby Hayes, Dick Morrissey, Bobby Wellins, as well as accompanying American musicians, notably George Coleman and Charlie Rouse, when they were visiting the UK.
Drummer Bryan Spring, who is sometimes credited as Brian and has led/co-led two recording sessions and played on eighteen as a sideman, continues to be active on the jazz scene.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Claude Barthélemy was born on August 22, 1956 in St. Denis, France and started playing guitar when he was fourteen years old. He began playing professionally with Michel Portal’s Ensemble Unit in 1978 and worked with Aldo Romano, Stu Martin, and Gérard Marais.
In the early 1980s he assembled a trio with Jacques Mahieux and Jean-Luc Ponthieux. Additionally he worked with Jean-Marc Padovani and Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique. By the mid-1980s he concentrated on composition, writing for mixed ensembles. Several of his pieces incorporated video and dance.
Barthélemy co-founded the group Zhivaro in 1987 and from 1989 to 1991 was the director of Orchestre National de Jazz. The 1990s saw him leading the octet La Nouvelle-Orleans, the quartet Monsieur Claude, and accompanying Elise Caron and Sylvie Cobo.
Guitarist Claude Barthélemy continues to perform as a director and leader of various ensemble configurations
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Elbert Raney was born on August 20, 1927 in Louisville, Kentucky.In 1946, he worked his first paying gig as the guitarist with the Max Miller Quartet at Elmer’s in Chicago, Illinois. He was also a member of the Artie Shaw Orchestra and collaborated with Woody Herman for nine months in 1948. He also collaborated and recorded with Buddy DeFranco, Al Haig and later on with Bob Brookmeyer.
In 1967, alcoholism and other professional difficulties led him to leave New York City and return to his native Louisville. Raney lived with Ménière’s disease for thirty years, a degenerative condition that led to near deafness in both ears, although this did not stop him from playing.
In 1954 and 1955, he won the DownBeat Critics’ Poll for guitar. Guitarist Jimmy Raney, one of the most gifted and influential post war jazz guitarists in the world, transitioned from heart failure in Louisville on May 10, 1995.
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