Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chuck Israels was born Charles H. Israels on August 10, 1936 in New York City, New York. He was raised in a musical family which moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was 10 and his stepfather Mordecai Bauman was a singer who performed extensively with composer Hanns Eisler. With music a part of normal daily activity, folks like Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, and The Weavers were regular visitors. In 1948, the appearance of Louis Armstrong’s All Stars in a concert series produced by his parents gave him his first opportunity to meet and hear jazz musicians.
In college, Israels had the opportunity to perform with Billie Holiday. His first professional job after college was working with pianist Bud Powell in Paris, France. His first professional recording was Stereo Drive a.k.a. Coltrane Time with John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Kenny Dorham, and Louis Hayes.
>Israels is known for the Jazz Repertory as Director of the National Jazz Ensemble from 1973 to 1981. He made recordings with the Kronos Quartet and Rosemary Clooney in 1985. He was the Director of Jazz Studies at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington until 2010. In 2011, he created the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra and recorded Second Wind: A Tribute to the Music of Bill Evans in 2013.
He has worked with Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, J. J. Johnson, John Coltrane, and Judy Collins. Bassist, composer, arranger and bandleader Chuck Israels, who is best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio, continues to perform.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,bass,composer,history,instrumental,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Lee McFadden was born on August 6, 1928 in Baltimore, Maryland and as a small child tried the piano but later settled on guitar. After his military service, he concentrated on jazz guitar. By the 1950s the guitarist was playing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania clubs. From 1957-58 he was in organist Jimmy Smith’s band and recorded a dozen albums with Smith as part of a trio and sextet. The trio included Donald Bailey on drums.
Staying with organists he next joined Johnny “Hammond” Smith and during the period 1960–63 and one more in 1966, McFadden made eight recordings. Two further sideman appearances on albums came to fruition in the late 1970s.
In November 1967, the Al Grey & Eddie McFadden Quartet played at Count Basie’s Lounge in New York. During the late Seventies he recorded with Sonny Phillips and Don Patterson.
Guitarist Eddie McFadden, who also wrote music for some of his bands, passed away on September 23, 1992 in Philadelphia.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Otto Lington was born on August 5, 1903 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The son of a clown, he showed an early interest in music and got his first professional arrangement as a musician at 14 years old. During the 1920s and 1930s he led his own orchestras and held jobs as a leader of orchestras, such as Kai Ewans in Denmark , Jack Harris in Sweden and Bernard Etté in Germany.
He was one of the pioneers of jazz in Denmark and was nicknamed The White Negro. In 1929, Otto performed the first major jazz concert in Denmark, where, among other things, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue was performed.
For many years during 1951 ~ 1952 and 1958 ~ 1972 Lington led the orchestra at the Tivoli in Copenhagen, but also at many theaters, revue establishments and the like.
Violinist., composer, music publisher and bandleader Otto Lington, was a pioneer of jazz in Denmark, passed away on December 15, 1992 and interred at Søndermark Cemetery in Frederiksberg, Denmark.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,publisher,violin
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cedric Wallace was born August 3, 1909 in Miami, Florida. Moving to New York City in the 1930s he played in a band led by Reggie Johnson at the Saratoga Club. Later in the decade he worked with Jimmie Lunceford before joining Fats Waller’s band from 1938-1942, the association for which he is best known. Wallace played with Waller at the peak of his popularity and plays on many of his biggest hits.
He would go on to record with Una Mae Carlisle, Maxine Sullivan, Champion Jack Dupree, Pat Flowers, Gene Sedric, and Dean Martin. During the Forties Cedric led his own ensemble in New York in the 1940s which featured Eddie Gibbs on bass for a time, and continued to perform into the 1970s.
Double-bassist Cedric Wallace passed away on August 19, 1985 in New York City.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kamil Hala was born on August 1, 1914 in Most, Czechoslovakia. During the late Fifties he led his own orchestra. He was a member of the Czechoslovak Radio Dance Orchestra beginning in 1960, starting as a pianist and later as its arranger and conductor. After the orchestra split in 1963 he was the conductor of the Czechoslovak Radio Jazz Orchestra until the 1990s.
Pianist composer, arranger, and conductor Kamil Hala passed away on October 29, 2014 in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,conductor,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano