Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eugene Valentino Cherico was born on April 15, 1935 in Buffalo, New York. As a child he played drums and pursued a drumming career until he hurt his hand while in a special services band in the Army whereupon he picked up the double bass as therapy. He attended Berklee College of Music where he met Toshiko Akiyoshi with whom he would tour and record intermittently for many years.
Throughout the Fifties and 60s Cherico worked as a sideman with Herb Pomeroy, Maynard Ferguson, Red Norvo, Benny Goodman, George Shearing, Stan Getz, Peter Nero Joe Morello, Paul Desmond and Gary Burton.
Much of the ‘70s Gene made a living as a studio musician siding with Frank Strazzeri, Louis Bellson Peggy Lee, Lew Tabackin, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson Gerry Mulligan, Carmen McRae and Frank Sinatra, who he toured with into the early eighties. In 1984 he retired after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and after a ten-year battle, double bassist Gene Cherico passed away on August 12, 1994 in Santa Monica, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Double bassist John Levy was born April 11, 1912 in New Orleans but was raised in Chicago, Illinois. In 1944 he left Chicago for the bright lights of New York and played bass with Ben Webster, Erroll Garner, Milt Jackson and Billie Holiday. In ’49 he became the original bassist for the George Shearing Quintet and took on the responsibility as his road manager.
1951 saw him turning to business and opening John Levy Enterprises, Inc. becoming the first black personal manager in pop and jazz. By the sixties his roster was boasting clients including Nancy Wilson, Cannonball Adderley, George Shearing, Joe Williams, Shirley Horn and Ramsey Lewis.
In 1997, John Levy was inducted into the International Jazz Hall Of Fame and in 2006 was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. Bassist and personal manager John Levy passed away on January 20, 2012 at age 99 in Altadena, California.
Daily Dose OF Jazz…
Gene Ramey, born April 4, 1913 in Austin, Texas, began playing trumpet in college but switched to the sousaphone when he played with George Corley’s Royal Aces, The Moonlight Serenaders and Terence Holder. It wasn’t until his move to Kansas City in 1932 that he took up the bass, studying with Walter Page.
Becoming a fixture in the Kansas City jazz scene, the double bassist played with Jay McShann’s orchestra from 1938 to 1943. Never a leader but a most sought after sideman, especially once he moved to New York, Ramey played with the who’s who of jazz including but not limited to Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Ben Webster, Hot Lips Page, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis.
His transition into bebop was easily accomplished due to the countless hours of daily practice with his friend Bird. They developed their style without drums, piano or other horns and Ramey was soon the first bassist to play the whole harmony chord while Bird ran his changes. Ramey is credited with stating that long before the jazz world started calling it bop he and Bird had created this pattern.
Ramey had a prolific career as a bassist for over three decades, never losing touch with Dixieland or swing as witnessed in his solos on recording sessions. Returning to Austin in 1976 his short-lived retirement led to lessons to local bassists, then to live performances and full-time musicianship until a heart attack caused his death on December 8, 1984.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carol Kaye was born March 24, 1935 in Everett, Washington to professional musicians Clyde and Dot Smith. Growing up in poverty near the Port of Los Angeles, she began teaching guitar professionally in 1949 at age 14. Throughout the fifties Kaye played bebop in L. A. clubs with Bob Neal, Jack Sheldon who backed Lenny Bruce, Teddy Edwards and Billy Higgins.
One of the most prolific and widely heard bass players of her time she played many of Phil Spector’s sessions, Brian Wilson productions, Richie Valens, Simon and Garfunkel, Quincy Jones and Dave Grusin. Her television credits are a who’s who with shows like M*A*S*H, Get Smart, Kojak, It Takes A thief, The Love Boat, Hogan’s Heroes, Mannix, The Cosby Show, Wonder Woman, Mission Impossible and so on and so on.
An educator, Carol wrote beginning in 1969, How To Play The Electric Bass, the first of many bass tutoring books and DVD Courses. By the late 70’s she retired from playing due to arthritis but later returned to session work, teaching both bass and guitar to the likes of John Clayton, and performing, giving seminars and interviews.
A noted session player she carved out a lucrative career beginning with backing the likes of Sam Cooke in 1957 and working with leading producers like Michel Legrand, Lalo Schifrin, Hugh Montenegro, John Williams and Steven Spielberg. She is estimated to have played on 10,000 recording sessions over a career spanning 55 years.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clyde Lombardi was born in February 18, 1922 in the Bronx borough of New York City. He had extensive classical training but by the time he was 20 he became a jazz musician. He became an advanced yet flexible bassist, quite valuable in the jazz world of the ’40s and ’50s, playing regularly with Red Norvo from 1942-1945.
Throughout the rest of the decade he would play with Joe Marsala and the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra in 1945, as well as both big bands and combos headed by Benny Goodman during 1945-1946 and his bebop fling of 1948-1949.
Clyde played and recorded with Charlie Ventura in 1946, Lennie Tristano, Wardell Gray, Stan Getz, Al Haig, Zoot Sims, Eddie Bert, Tal Farlow in 1953 and George Wallington among others.
Unfortunately for the jazz world he never got the opportunity to lead any albums of his own. He left jazz by 1959 re-emerging from time to time and working for CBS as a studio musician and recording with tenor Tony Graye. He passed away in New York City on January 1, 1978.
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