Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lin Halliday was born on June 16, 1936 in De Queen, Arkansas and was raised in Little Rock, where he played the saxophone and clarinet in school. After he moved to Los Angeles, California in his teens he began playing professionally, performing with saxophonist Joe Maini.
A move to New York City in 1958, Nashville, Tennessee in 1966, and Chicago, Illinois in 1980, his style was influenced by the musical cultures of all three cities. Halliday made his debut album, Delayed Exposure, for the Chicago jazz label Delmark Records in 1991. His sophomore album the same year, East of the Sun and Where or When in 1993 with saxophonist Ira Sullivan were well received by the Chicago jazz community.
He became a staple attraction at many Chicago jazz clubs including the Green Mill, the Bop Shop, Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase, and the Get Me High Lounge. His performance on trumpeter Brad Goode’s 1998 album Shock of the New won him greater admiration with the Chicago jazz scene. Lin was also featured on the 1995 album Stablemates with Chicago saxophonist Eric Alexander.
Saxophonist Lin Halliday, who recorded five albums as a leader and one as a sideman with Cecil Payne all on Delmark, passed away on January 25, 2000.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paul Mares was born on June 15, 1900 in New Orleans, Louisiana and was self-taught on the cornet and trumpet and picked up his early experience laying the riverboat Capitol playing with the Tom Brown Band. Leaving his hometown in 1919 he moved to Chicago, Illinois and worked with Ragbaby Stevens before freelancing around the city.
In 1921 Paul formed the Friars Society Orchestra, a group that prominently featured trombonist George Brunies and clarinetist Leon Rappolo. From 1922-23, the band recorded for Gennett Records and became one of the best-regarded bands in the city. The band, which broke up in 1924, included up-and-coming jazz musicians, including the members of the Austin High School Gang and Bix Beiderbecke.
Mares who was influenced by King Oliver, played in New York for a short time, went back to New Orleans the following year and led a couple more sessions. In 1934, a move to Chicago the following year had him making a brief comeback and leading a recording session that resulted in four titles before he retired again.
By 1935 Mares he was playing trumpet and fronting a recording session with his band called Paul Mares and his Friars Society Orchestra. The name referred to the Friar’s Inn club where the Rhythm Kings had first played in Chicago. The 1935 band included the white New Orleanian and N.O.R.K. veteran Santo Pecora on trombone, the black New Orleanian Omar Simeon on clarinet and the Chicagoan altoist Boyce Brown, as well as George Wettling on drums, pianist Jess Stacey, bassist Pat Pattison, and guitarist Marvin Saxbe.
He then largely retired from playing to work in the family fur business, and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings passed into history. He ran a barbeque restaurant, did defense plant work during World War II, and returned to music in 1945, leading a final band from 1945-48 that unfortunately never recorded. Cornetist and trumpeter Paul Mares passed away on August 18, 1949 in Chicago.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Gordon was born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 11, 1928. Moving to Los Angeles, California in 1948 he studied at Westlake College of Music. Becoming a part of the West Coast jazz scene he was best known as a sideman for musicians like Stan Kenton, Shelly Manne, Chet Baker, Maynard Ferguson, Shorty Rogers, Spud Murphy, Red Norvo, Bill Holman, Dave Pell, Herbie Harper, and Jack Montrose.
In May 1954, only a few weeks before the sessions with Clifford Brown, Gordon recorded as a leader for Pacific Jazz titled Meet Mr. Gordon. As a co-leader, he recorded another five during his short career,
Cool jazz baritone saxophonist Bob Gordon passed away in a car accident on his way to playing at a Pete Rugolo concert in San Diego, California on August 28, 1955. He was 27.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Guy Eugène Hilarion Pedersen was born on June 10, 1930 in Grand-Fort-Philippe, France. Coming from a family of popular musicians all members of his maternal family are fiddlers and his great-grandfather composed the jazz standard Tiger Rag.
At the age of 13 he started music theory in 1943, taking free lessons at the Roubaix Conservatory until 1952. In 1950, he won the prize for the best double bassist in the Brussels competition, then that of Jazz Hot in Paris, and then decided to become a musician. Already passionate about jazz, he listened to radio broadcasts by Hugues Panassié and bought his first American records by Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Lee Konitz at Deruyck in Roubaix.
He began working in Paris with singer Fats Edward, then played with pianist Henri Renaud and drummer Jean-Louis Viale at Tabou, and at Ringside founded by boxing champ Sugar Ray Robinson. He went on to work with Jacques Hélian and then Claude Bolling with whom he learned the large orchestra profession. From 1955 to 1966, he was a member with drummer Daniel Humair of the most famous trio led by Martial Solal, recording the historic Jazz à Gaveau in 1962.
Guy Pedersen and Daniel Humair then joined the Swingle Singers to record the second disc. They will travel around the world in their company, even passing through the White House in 1966.
From 1973 Guy toured with Baden Powell, recording more than a dozen records with him. Between 1973 and 1980, he recorded seven albums and toured frequently with Jean-Christian Michel.
During that time, Pedersen led an active career as a studio musician, appeared in variety shows on television, accompanying the group Les Troubadours. The late 1960s saw him composing, writing a lot of music for short films. Some of his recordings on the musical illustration labels Tele Music and Montparnasse 2000 are today cult, especially in the disc jockeys world.
In 1977 a serious cardiac accident forced him to withdraw from the world of music. He then became an antique dealer. Bassist Guy Pedersen passed away on January 4, 2005 at the age of 74.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Pasco Gourley, Jr. was born on June 9, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri. He met saxophonist Lee Konitz in Chicago, Illinois when both were members of the same high school band, crediting Konitz with encouraging him to become a serious musician.
Jimmy’s father started the Monarch Conservatory of Music in Hammond, Indiana, and though he didn’t teach, he bought him his first guitar. Taken his first guitar classes at the school. He became interested in jazz while listening to the radio, enjoying in particular Nat King Cole. For his first professional experience as a performer, he dropped out of high school to play with a jazz band in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
From 1944 to 1946, Gourley served in the U.S. Navy then returned to Chicago, where he met guitarist Jimmy Raney and wanted to play like him. He worked in bars and clubs with Jackie Cain & Roy Kral, Anita O’Day, Sonny Stitt, and Gene Ammons. Through the G.I. Bill, he received tuition for three years to any college in the world.
By 1951, he spent the rest of his life in France, working with Henri Renaud, Lou Bennett, Kenny Clarke, Richard Galliano, Stéphane Grappelli, Bobby Jaspar, Eddy Louiss, Martial Solal, and Barney Wilen. He played with American musicians who were passing through, including Bob Brookmeyer, Clifford Brown, Stan Getz, Gigi Gryce, Roy Haynes, Bud Powell, Zoot Sims, Lucky Thompson, Lester Young and his friend Lee Konitz. Guitarist Jimmy Gourley passed away on December 7, 2008 in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, France at the age of 82.
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