Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Israel Crosby was January 19, 1919 in Chicago, Illinois and was best known as the double-bassist in the Ahmad Jamal Trio from 1957 to 1962, but recorded eighteen albums with him from 1951 to 1967.
A close contemporary of Jimmy Blanton, Israel has been considered less as a pioneer, but rather for his interactive playing in Jamal’s trio and that of George Shearing. His playing exhibited how easily and fluently he displayed a modern approach to jazz double bass.
He is credited with taking the first recorded bass solo at age 16 on his 1935 recording of “Blues of Israel” with drummer Gene Krupa on the Prestige label. Beyond Jamal, Shearing and Krupa, Crosby performed and recorded with Albert Ammons, Charlie Christian, Vic Dickerson, Roy Eldridge, Herb Ellis, Edmond Hall, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, Horace Henderson, Sam Jones, Meade Lux Lewis, Jess Stacy and Earl Washington.
A consummate sideman, bassist Israel Crosby passed away on August 11, 1962 of a heart attack just two months after joining the Shearing Quintet.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eldee Young was born January 7, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois. He started playing upright bass at the age of 13, helped by his eldest brother who played guitar.
In 1955 Eldee joined the Ramsey Lewis Trio and after a decade together recording more than twenty albums, split along with band mate Isaac “Red” Holt to form the Young-Holt Trio. They would change their name to the Young-Holt Unlimited in 1968. After they dissolved six years and ten records later, he continued playing, mainly with small groups in Chicago.
He also played with pianist Jeremy Monteiro for more than 20 years, appeared on recording sessions with James Moody, Eden Atwood and Lorez Alexander, among others.
Double bassist and cellist Eldee Young, who performed mainly in the cool jazz, post bop and R&B mediums passed away of a heart attack in Bangkok, Thailand on February 12, 2007.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Kirby was born John Kirk in Winchester, Virginia on December 31, 1908. His mother gave him up for adoption and was raised by Reverend Washington and Nancy Johnson. He was a student at the Winchester Colored School and started trombone lessons around nine years old under the guidance of Professor Powell Gibson. As a kid and that he learned to play music just as it was written and his formal education ended around 1923.
Kirby arrived in Baltimore around 1927 and met trombonist Jimmy Harrison, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and composer Duke Ellington. It was Harrison who persuaded him to switch from trombone to tuba. He played tuba with Bill Brown and His Brownies, pianist Charlie Sheets and then with John C. Smith’s Society Band. He joined Fletcher Henderson in 1929, recorded tuba on a number of sessions, but switched to double-bass when tuba fell out of favor as jazz bands’ primary bass instrument.
In the early 1930s, John took bass lessons from legendary bassists Pops Foster and Wellman Braud, left Henderson to play with Chick Webb, then joined Lucky Millinder and briefly led a quartet in 1935, but was more often than not a sideman in other groups. He performed behind Billie Holiday and Teddy Wilson on their first recording date.
By 1936, Kirby was a successful sideman on the New York City jazz scene, secured a gig at the Onyx Club leading Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Billy Kyle, Russell Procope and O’Neill Spencer, becoming one of the more significant small groups in the big band era. They recorded the Shaver’s classic Undecided, with Maxine Sullivan most often performing the vocal duties for the group.
Along with his orchestra, John had a 30-minute radio program, Flow Gently, Sweet Rhythm, also known as The John Kirby Show on CBS from April 1940 – January 1941. The program also featured Sullivan and the Golden Gate Quartet and they have been cited as the first black artists to host a jazz-oriented series.
He tended toward a lighter, classically influenced style of jazz often referred to as chamber jazz. He was very prolific and extremely popular from 1938-1941 but lost most of his group to World War II. Through the war years he was able to attract Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Ben Webster, Clyde Hart, Budd Johnson and Zutty Singleton to his small groups and club dates. As Kirby’s career declined, he drank heavily and was beset by diabetes.
After the war, Kirby got the surviving sextet members back together, with vocalist Sarah Vaughan but the reunion did not last. A concert at Carnegie Hall in December 1950, with Bailey plus drummer Sid Catlett, attracted only a small audience, crushing his spirit and badly damaging what little was left of his career. Double-bassist, trombonist and tubist John Kirby passed away on June 14, 1952 in Hollywood, California at age 43.
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Irving C. Ashby was born December 29, 1920 in Somerville, Massachusetts. After playing rhythm guitar in Lionel Hampton’s orchestra, he played in the Nat King Cole Trio from 1947 to 1951. He then briefly replaced drummer Charlie Smith in the Oscar Trio, producing a lineup of piano, guitar and bass similar to the Cole Trio’s, a substitution that continued until 1958.
After leaving the Peterson Trio, Ashby concentrated on session work for the labels. His subsequent recordings included sessions with Norman Granz, Sheb Wooley, LaVern Baker, Howard Roberts, B.B. King, Louis Jordan, Pat Boone and Illinois Jacquet.
In addition to performing on guitar, Irving Ashby also played the upright bass until his passing on April 22, 1987 in Perris, California at the age of 66.
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Cameron Brown was born December 21, 1945 in Detroit, Michigan. He started studying music at age 10, first on piano, later on clarinet. But, drawn to the bass, he found himself playing a tin bass in a student dance band. As an exchange student in Europe, he worked with George Russell’s sextet and big band for one year.
Brown went on to play with Don Cherry, Aldo Romano, Booker Ervin and Donald Byrd. In 1966 he returned to the States to matriculate and graduate in 1969 from Columbia College, Columbia University with a degree in sociology.
In 1974, Cameron met Sheila Jordan, gigged with free jazz pioneers Roswell Rudd and Beaver Harris, joined Archie Shepp’s quintet in 1975 and recorded with Harris and The 360 Degree Music Experience around that time.
The Don Pullen/George Adams Quartet had Brown and drummer Dannie Richmond helping to develop into an intense and rewarding partnership that lasted during the 1980s. In addition to this quartet, he played with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and various groups led by Rudd, and Richmond. He has performed and recorded with Ted Curson, Lee Konitz, Chet Baker, Joe Lovano, Mal Waldron, Ricky Ford, Steve Grossman, Betty Carter, John Hicks, Etta Jones and Jane Ira Bloom, to name a few.
Cameron has appeared on more than 80 recordings as a sideman and his first recording as a leader after nearly 40 years of performing, was published in 2003 with his group The Hear and Now featuring Dewey Redman.
In addition to playing gigs and touring nationally and internationally, he is an educator currently teaching jazz double bass at Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, New York, offers private lessons and substitute teaches music theory classes at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.
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Dose A Day – Blues Away
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