Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Adam Makowicz was born Adam Matyszkowic on August 18, 1940 into a family of ethnic Poles in Hnojník, Poland now the Czech Republic. After World War II he was raised in Poland and went on to study classical music at the Chopin Conservatory of Music in Kraków, Poland. Overcoming cultural restrictions under the communist government he developed a passion for modern jazz. At the time, political freedom and improvisation were disapproved of by the pro-Soviet authorities.
He embarked on a new professional life as a touring jazz pianist and after years of hardship, Makowicz gained a regular gig at a small jazz club in a cellar of a house in Kraków. He was named the Best Jazz Pianist by the readers of Poland’s Jazz Forum magazine, and was awarded a gold medal for his contribution to the arts.
1977 saw Adam on a 10-week concert tour of the United States, produced by John Hammond. At that time he settled in New York City and recorded a solo album titled Adam on the CBS record label, having been banned from Poland during the 1980s after the Polish regime imposed martial law to crush the Solidarity movement.
Moving to Toronto, Canada in the 2000s he continued his career as a concert pianist and recording artist. In the course of his career, Makowicz has performed with major symphony orchestras and major concert halls in the Americas and in Europe. He has recorded over 30 albums of jazz, popular, and classical music, with his own arrangements and recorded his own compositions for piano. Pianist Adam Makowicz continues to compose, arrange, record and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sam Butera was born on August 17, 1927 and raised in an Italian-American family in New Orleans, Louisiana where his father ran a butcher shop and played guitar in his spare time. Hearing the saxophone at seven for the first time at a wedding, with his father’s encouragement he began to play.
His professional career blossomed early, beginning with a stint in big band drummer Ray McKinley’s orchestra directly after high school. At eighteen Butera was named one of America’s top upcoming jazzmen by Look magazine and by his early twenties, he had landed positions in the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey, Joe Reichman, and Paul Gayten.
As the big band era wound down Sam re-settled in New Orleans, where he played regularly at the 500 Club for four years. The club, owned by Louis Prima’s brother, was the connection that led him to his Las Vegas, Nevada collaborations with Prima and Keely Smith.
Prima transitioned from big band to Vegas and the Sahara and called Butera to assemble a band posthaste. They drove from New Orleans to Las Vegas and without a name on opening night in 1954 when Prima asked Butera before a live audience he responded spontaneously, “The Witnesses”, and the name stuck, remaining the bandleader for more than twenty years.
Noted for his raucous playing style, his off-color humor, and the innuendo in his lyrics, he also wrote arrangements, composed music. Sam is widely regarded as the inspiration for the vocal style of fellow New Orleans-born jazz singer Harry Connick, Jr. He went on to appear on television and in movies. Tenor saxophonist Sam Butera transitioned from pneumonia in Las Vegas on June 3, 2009 at the age of 81.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Armando Joseph “Buddy” Greco was born Armando Joseph Greco to an Italian-American family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 14, 1926. His mother introduced him to piano at age four and as a child he sang on the radio, and in his teens performed in the city’s night clubs. Sixteen saw him hired by Benny Goodman and spent four years touring the world with the Goodman orchestra, playing piano, singing, and arranging. Becoming acquainted with Great Britain in 1949 he spent many years performing in numerous clubs. He moved to Essex, keeping his Palm Springs property as a vacation home.
In 1951 he started his recording career, signing with labels such as Coral, Kapp, Epic, and Reprise. 1969 saw Buddy form a duo with jazz guitarist Ron Escheté. He opened a small club in Palm Springs, California which became popular for celebrities to dine. After closing it, he moved to England.
In 2008, he and singer Lezlie Anders toured the UK, performed with the BBC Big Band and at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. He was the first Las Vegas headliner to star at a British casino when he performed at the Circus Casino, and he performed a tribute to Frank Sinatra for BBC Radio 2 with the 42-piece BBC Concert Orchestra. He toured the UK with the Swinging Las Vegas Legends show beginning in July 2010.
In 2010, Greco and his wife Lezlie produced the stage show Fever! The Music of Miss Peggy Lee, which met with critical acclaim at its London West End opening. They continued to perform and tour for the next seven years. Vocalist Buddy Greco transitioned on January 10, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the age of 90.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jesse Alexandria Stacy was born on August 11, 1904 in Bird’s Point, Missouri, a small town across the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois. His first piano teacher was Mabel Irene Bailey, who played piano for silent movies. In 1918 Stacy moved to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He received his only formal music training with Clyde Brandt, a professor of piano and violin at Southeast Missouri State Teachers College, now Southeast Missouri State University while holding down a job sweeping Clark’s Music Store.
By 1920, Stacy was playing piano in Peg Meyer’s jazz ensemble at Cape Girardeau High School, the Bluebird Confectionery, and the Sweet Shop. Schoolmates called them the Agony Four. By 1921, the band was known as Peg Meyer’s Melody Kings and started touring the Mississippi River on the Majestic and other riverboats.[6]
The early 1920s saw Jess moving to Chicago, Illinois where he performed with Paul Mares, leader of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, playing Chicago-style jazz. In 1935, Benny Goodman asked him to join his band, then moved to New York City, and spent 1935–39 with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, including a Carnegie Hall concert in 1938, where he played an unplanned piano solo during Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing). After leaving the Goodman Orchestra, he joined the Bob Crosby Orchestra and the Bob Crosby Bob-Cats.
Moving to Los Angeles, California in 1950 his career declined to club work and after a drunken woman spilled beer in his lap he announced he was quitting the music business and retired from public performances. He worked as a salesman, warehouseman, postman, and for Max Factor cosmetics before being rediscovered. He played for Nelson Riddle on the soundtrack of The Great Gatsby in 1974, was invited to play at the Newport Jazz Festival in New York and was asked to record twice for Chiaroscuro, in 1974 and 1977, Stacy Still Swings.
After his brief revival in the 1970s, he again retired from music and lived with his third wife, Patricia Peck Stacy, for forty-five years. Pianist Jess Stacy ,who won the DownBeat magazine piano poll in 1940 and was inducted posthumously into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1996, transitioned from congestive heart failure in Los Angeles on January 1, 1995.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wik Horn was born on August 9, 1943 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Classically trained piano education for 4 years starting at 10, when he was 14 he started to play classic jazz with his younger brother trumpeter Fred.
After playing in several school bands he formed his first real band in 1965,The Court Town Rhythm Kings. The band played authentic old jazz in the way of Oliver, Morton, early Armstrong, Williams, Beiderbecke and Half Way House.
The band broke up in 1972 due to moving members and Wik moved from The Hague to resettle in Amsterdam. There along with his brother they founded in 1973 as Madam Zenja and Her Jazz Horns in 1973, together with singer Zenja Damm, recording two albums, Changes and Was It A Dream. From 1974 to 1980 he was president of the oldest and famous Jazzclub in Holland, the Haarlemse Jazz Club. Many of the great American musicians who came to Europe and Amsterdam performed there.
Settling in the little village of Leiderdorp between Amsterdam and The Hague, he spent some time in advertising and public relations. He started the jazz club De Wagenschuur from 1984 to 1994 and a new band, Swingin’ Crash, that started as a little swing ensemble but grew within a year into a small big band.
He went on to write charts and arrangements for the band and well as compose, song texts and write a little booklet for special occasions like the 60th anniversary of the The Hague Jazz Club. Pianist Wik Horn retired but has continued to have a life filled with music, writing and painting.
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