Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Elliott Lawrence was born Elliott Lawrence Broza on February 14, 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were radio and television variety show pioneers who created and produced the long running Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour.
Growing up in this show business environment, Lawrence began studying piano at the age of three. His first public performance was at age four conducting the orchestra on the Children’s Hour stage show. At six he wrote his first composition, Falling Down Stairs, and was stricken with polio, from which he recovered. By the age of 12, he had formed his first band, a 15-piece unit called The Band Busters, and began doing club dates on the weekends. Finishing high school at age 16 he entered the University of Pennsylvania. During his junior year his band, now named The Elliot Broza Orchestra, began playing college proms around the state. At Penn, majoring in symphonic conducting under Harl McDonald, he was offered the position as assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra upon graduation.
Changing his name to Elliot Lawrence when he became the music director of WCAU’S House Band in 1945, they premiered on the radio as The Elliot Lawrence Orchestra. From 1946 to 1954, the band toured around the United States year round, while recording for Decca, Columbia, RCA, Fantasy, and Vik records. In 1949, the band performed a three-week stint with the Nat King Cole Trio at the Paramount Theater in New York City, during which time it recorded Gerry Mulligan’s Elevation, later named “one of the top 50 best jazz recordings of the 20th century” by the Smithsonian Institution.
Landing in New York City in 1955 as the big band era came to a close, he began to do radio shows such as The Red Buttons show, the Jack Sterling Show and hosted Melody Street. He went to the Soviet Union with Ed Sullivan, met Gower Champion and became his musical director on his Bye Bye Birdie, which garnered him a Tony nomination. After 1960, Lawrence gave up jazz and began composing and arranging for television, film, and stage. He won the Tony Award for his second show, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 1962. This led to a 16-year career as a Broadway Conductor and musical director and later to his almost 50-year career as the “go to” conductor for big television events and specials.
As a composer, he scored the movies Network and The French Connection, won nine Emmy awards for musical direction, and was music director for the TonyAwards. Pianist, bandleader and conductor Elliott Lawrence transitioned on July 2, 2021 at the age of 96 in Manhattan, New York.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ferdinand Povel was born on February 13, 1947 in Haarlem, Netherlands. Coming from an artistic family, his father was a cineaste (filmmaker) and his mother a pianist. At an early age, he developed a taste for jazz, when first introduced to as a gift on his twelfth birthday, he received a ticket to a late-night concert by the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
In 1961 he began studying clarinet with Theo Loevendie and teaching himself saxophone because jazz was not yet taught formally in the Netherlands. Ferdinand learned by playing with experienced musicians, such as pianists Rob Madna and Frans Elsen, picking up knowledge of harmony and arrangement as a young member of the orchestras of Kurt Edelhagen and Peter Herbolzheimer, and of the Skymasters.
In 1964 at 17, Povel won the Loosdrecht Jazz Concours with the Martin Haak Quartet. This was the start of his career as a professional musician. 1966 saw him playing with The New Sound Incorporated, giving school concerts and radio and TV broadcasts for Tros and Avro broadcasting companies. He went on to be a finalist at the 1966 International Modern Jazz Festival in Vienna, Austria where the judges included Cannonball Adderley and Mel Lewis.
In the same year, the Netherlands Jazz Orchestra invited Povel to join them as a saxophonist and flutist. Three years later he was in Munich, Germany playing with trumpet player Dusko Goykovich in his Summit Quintet, starring drummer Philly Joe Jones and touring Europe several times.
Ferdinand would go on to play with the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band, the Kurt Edelhagen Orchestra, tour the United States of America with the Maynard Ferguson Big Band, and the Peter Herbolzheimer’s Rhythm Combination and Brass from 1971 to 1985. He was a member of George Grunz’s band, Jiggs Whigham Sextet, and the bands of Rob Madna, Frans Elsen, and Cees Slinger. He has played in the front line with jazz icons such as Art Farmer, Bennie Bailey, Woody Shaw, and Jimmy Knepper.
Throughout his career he was never far from playing in various occasional orchestras for radio and television. As an educator he taught jazz improvisation at the Rotterdam Conservatory and at conservatoriums in Zwolle, Hilversum and The Hague. Since 1990 he has taught exclusively at the Hilversum Music Academy, now named the Conservatory of Amsterdam, as part of Amsterdam School of the Arts.
Saxophonist Ferdinand Povel has a discography that includes over one hundred record and CD albums to which he has contributed as a soloist. He has received several honors and continues to perform and educate.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Le Roy Watts Harris Jr. was born on February 12, 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri. He played violin while young, then learned saxophone and clarinet. By age 13 he was playing with pianist Chick Finney.
Relocating to Chicago, Illinois around 1930 he played with Ray Nance from 1931 to 1936. Following this stint he worked with Earl Hines from 1937 to 1943. He joined the United States Navy during World War II and played in a band from 1943 to 1944. After his discharge he played with Bill Doggett, Ben Thigpen, Tadd Dameron, Sarah Vaughan, Singleton Palmer, and Wynonie Harris, then returned to play with Hines once more.
In the early 1950s he led his own band at the Kit Kat club in New York. He resettled in St. Louis again in 1957 and played with Eddie Johnson from 1960 to 1971.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Le Roy Harris Jr., whose father and uncle were both jazz musicians, transitioned on February 16, 2005 in his hometown of St. Louis.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Martin Drew was born on February 11, 1944 in Northampton, England and started to play the drums when he was six years old. Studying with drummer George Fierstone gave him a solid musical and technical background. He played his first professional engagement at the age of 13.
He was also a member of a trio led by Eddie Thompson. Martin was often heard playing on BBC Radio 2’s Sounds of Jazz program in the 1970s, which was introduced by Peter Clayton on Sunday evenings.
During the 1980s, Drew played simultaneously with the Ronnie Scott Quartet and with the jazz group Morrissey–Mullen, until they disbanded in 1988. He then led a quintet called Our Band with saxophonist Dick Morrissey, guitarist Jim Mullen who replaced original member Louis Stewart, pianist John Critchinson, and bassist Ron Mathewson.
Between 1997 and 2000, he led a quartet with Mornington Lockett on tenor saxophone, Gareth Williams on piano, and Laurence Cottle on electric bass. 2000 saw Martin forming the Celebrating The Jazz Couriers quintet with Mornington Lockett, playing the music of the original Jazz Couriers. They won the 2002 British Jazz Award for Best Small Group.
The New Couriers band reformed in 2003 with Paul Morgan on double-bass and Jim Hart on vibraphone. Lockett and Steve Melling on tenor saxophone and piano. He recorded one album in 1978 titled The Martin Drew Band, British Jazz Artists Vol. 3.
Drummer Martin Drew, who worked with over one hundred musicians from both sides of the Atlantic, transitioned following a heart attack on July 29, 2010, at the age of 66 in Harefield, Hillingdon, England.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rahn Burton was born February 10, 1934 in Louisville, Kentucky. He began taking piano lessons at age 13, and worked locally in Louisville before playing his first gigs with Roland Kirk. He toured with Kirk from 1953 to 1959 and recorded with him into the early 1960s, contributing the composition Jack the Ripper to the 1960 release Introducing Roland Kirk.
Moving on to play local gigs in New York City and Syracuse, New York for a short time in the early 1960s, he returned to local playing in Louisville. During 1964-65 he played organ in George Adams’s touring ensemble, and played briefly with Sirone around the same time.
1967 saw Burton re-joining Roland Kirk’s group, playing with him at the 1968 Newport Jazz Festival and on several recordings through 1973. He also founded his own ensemble, African American Connection, which included Roland Alexander, Bob Cunningham, Ricky Ford, and Hannibal Marvin Peterson.
He recorded extensively as a sideman in the 1970s and 1980s with George Adams and Hannibal Peterson, Carlos Garnett, Beaver Harris, Jemeel Moondoc, Charlie Rouse, Leon Thomas and Stanley Turrentine. His associations in the 1990s included work in Austria with Nicholas Simion and a trio recording in 1992 with Walter Booker and Jimmy Cobb.
Pianist Rahn Burton, who was also known as Ron Burton or William Burton, transitioned on January 25, 2013 in Manhattan, New York.
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