Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stuff Combe was born Etienne Stephen Jean Gustave Combe in Bern, Switzerland on March 12, 1924 and initially pursued schooling in art during World War II, but ultimately decided on a career in music instead.
During the 1940s Combe played in Switzerland in the 1940s with Philippe Brun, Eddie Brunner, Ernst Hollerhagen, and Hazy Osterwald. In the 1950s he traveled extensively throughout Europe and played frequently with visiting American musicians. Near the end of the decade he recorded with Paul Kuhn and Fats Sadi. In 1957 he began playing with Kurt Edelhagen, an association that would continue into the mid-1960s.
Stuff formed his own large ensemble in Geneva, Switzerland in 1966, and the following year worked with the Radio Suisse Romande jazz band. He was Lucky Thompson’s drummer during Thompson’s 1969 Swiss tour. In the 1970s he worked with Francy Boland and Benny Bailey, and played in the western United States with Groupe Instrumental Romand.
Drummer Stuff Combe, who wrote a treatise on percussion improvisation, passed away on December 27, 1986 in Morges, Switzerland.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Norman Burns was born in London, England on March 11, 1920. Closely associated with the pianist George Shearing, together they worked the West End nightclub circuit in the mid 1940s, before Shearing made his fame and fortune in the USA.
Though he recorded with Alan Dean Beboppers and others in 1948, he never was a bop musician. He was a regular figure on the modern jazz scene and from 1951, he led a quintet whose format and repertoire were based on the successful George Shearing Quintet formula. From the time of their first gig they were an instant hit and for two and a half years the quintet toured the UK jazz venues with great success. They added vocalists Eileen Draper and Johnny Green in 1954 but the group disbanded in 1955.
Esquire decided to record the quintet in 1952 by which time a number of personnel changes had taken place. Victor Feldman, the highest profile jazz musician working with the group had left prior to the recordings. A later move to Australia, saw drummer Norman Burns residing for many years until he passed away in June 1994.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louis Tebogo Moholo was born on March 10, 1940 in Cape Town, South Africa. He formed The Blue Notes with Chris McGregor, Johnny Dyani, Nikele Moyake, Mongezi Feza and Dudu Pukwana, and at the age of twenty-four, emigrated to Europe with them. He eventually settled in London, England where he formed part of a South African exile community that made an important contribution to British jazz.
In 1966, he toured Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he performed at the Theatron with Steve Lacy, Johnny Dyani and Enrico Rava and recorded the album The Forest and the Zoo with the same musicians. During the 1970s he was a member of the Brotherhood of Breath, a big band comprising several South African exiles and leading musicians of the British free jazz scene in the 1970s. He is the founder of Viva la Black and The Dedication Orchestra.
His first album under his own name, Spirits Rejoice on Ogun Records, is considered a classic example of the combination of British and South African players. In the early 1970s, Moholo was also a member of the afro-rock band Assagai.
He has played with, among others, Derek Bailey, Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Enrico Rava, Roswell Rudd, Irène Schweizer, Cecil Taylor, John Tchicai, Archie Shepp, Peter Brötzmann, Mike Osborne, Keith Tippett, Elton Dean and Harry Miller.
Moholo returned to South Africa in September 2005, performing with George Lewis at the UNYAZI Festival of Electronic Music in Johannesburg, South Africa. Now going by the name Louis Moholo-Moholo because the name is more ethnically authentic, the drummer continues to perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,instrumental,jazz,jistory,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Victor Ash was born in East London, England on March 9, 1930, of Jewish ancestry and began playing professionally in 1951 when, with Tubby Hayes, he joined the band of Kenny Baker, with whom he played until 1953. Following this association, Ash played with Vic Lewis from 1953–56, then accompanied Hoagy Carmichael and Cab Calloway on their English tours.
Leading his own group, he became a favourite in the Melody Maker fan polls of the 1950s. Concurrently he had a radio program called Sunday Break, which discussed jazz and religion. In 1954, the Vic Ash Quartet recorded with US singer Maxine Sullivan in London. Ash toured the U.S. in 1957 and returned to play with Lewis in 1959. That same year his ensemble was the only one representing British jazz at the Newport Jazz Festival.
Ash remained a mainstay on the British jazz scene for decades, playing in small and large ensembles including the BBC Big Band. He accompanied Frank Sinatra on his tours in Europe and the Middle East, from 1970 until Sinatra’s death.
He released many albums for Pye, Nixa and MGM, mostly in the mainstream jazz tradition. Saxophonist and clarinetist Vic Ash, who co-authored his autobiography I Blew It My Way in 2006, passed away on October 24, 2014.
More Posts: bandleader,clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph Robichaux was born on March 8, 1900 in New Orleans, Louisiana and played piano from a young age and studied at New Orleans University. After working in the O.J. Beatty Carnival, he played with Tig Chambers briefly in 1918, then returned to New Orleans where he played with Oscar Celestin, Earl Humphrey, Lee Collins, and The Black Eagles.
Arranging for the Jones-Collins Astoria Hot Eight in 1929, Joe also recorded with them. He accompanied Christina Gray on record that year. In 1931 he formed his own ensemble, which featured Eugene Ware on trumpet, Alfred Guichard on clarinet and alto saxophone, Gene Porter on tenor sax, and Ward Crosby on drums.
The group journeyed to New York City to record for Vocalion in August 1933, laying down twenty-two mostly stomping, uptempo sides and two alternate takes in a marathon five day recording schedule which included Rene Hall on tenor banjo. Vocalion issued ten records over the next year and two tracks with Chick Bullock vocals were issued under his name on Banner, Domino, Oriole, Perfect, and Romeo.
Working and recording during the height of Jim Crow, problems arose with the musicians’ union in New York that prevented the group from playing live there, so they returned to New Orleans not long after recording. Robichaux expanded the size of his ensemble over the course of the 1930s, with Earl Bostic was among those who joined its ranks.
Touring Cuba in the mid-1930s, the band also recorded for Decca Records in 1936, recording 4 sides in New Orleans, but unfortunately they were all rejected. By 1939 Robichaux’s ensemble disbanded and he found work as a solo performer, mostly in New Orleans. During the 1950s he recorded on R&B recordings and played with Lizzie Miles.
From the late 1950s to the mid Sixties he played with George Lewis, Peter Bocage; and performed at Preservation Hall. Pianist Joe Robichaux passed away of a heart attack at the age of 64 on January 17, 1965 in his hometown.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano