Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Coleridge Emerson Goode was born on November 29, 1914 in Kingston, Jamaica. His father was a choirmaster and organist and his mother sang in the choir. Moving to Britain in 1934, the 19-year-old student at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow, Scotland and then went on to read for a degree in engineering at Glasgow University. Already proficient as an amateur classical violinist he turned to jazz and took up the bass after hearing the music of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Louis Jordan and decided to embark upon a musical career.
His primary early influences as a bassist were Walter Page, Slam Stewart and Jimmy Blanton. In London during World War II, Coleridge worked with Johnny Claes, Eric Winstone, Lauderic Caton, Dick Katz, became a founder member of the Ray Ellington Quartet and recorded with Django Reinhardt in 1946, alongside Stephane Grappelli. He went on to play with Tito Burns’ sextet and led his own group, before being invited to join Joe Harriott’s new band in 1958.
By 1967 he was recording with Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Ronnie Beer, and Laurie Allan on Gwigwi Mrwebi’s Mbaqanga Songs. Through the decade and into the 1970s, Goode worked extensively with pianist/composer Michael Garrick, while performing in the house band at Laurie Morgan’s Sunday jam session into his 90s.
In 2002, he published his autobiography Bass Lines: A Life in Jazz, which chronicled the birth of free form jazz in Britain. He was honoured with the Services to Jazz Award at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, and at the age of 100, double bassist Coleridge Goode passed away on October 2, 2015.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chuck Andrus was born Charles Edmund Andrus Jr. on November 17, 1928 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Raised in New England, he studied at the Manhattan School of Music.
In the late 1940s he formed his own ensemble in Springfield, Massachusetts which included Sal Salvador and Phil Woods. He played with Charlie Barnet in 1953, then with Claude Thornhill through the middle of the decade. While with Thornhill he met Terry Gibbs, and the two frequently played and recorded together in subsequent years.
As a freelance musician in New York, Andrus worked with Don Stratton, Bernard Peiffer, and Jim Chapin; he also recorded extensively with Woody Herman. Double bassist Chuck Andrus passed away on June 12, 1997.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Albert Bennington Lucas was born on November 16, 1916 in Brantford, Ontario, Canada and took piano lessons as a child from his concert pianist mother, Francis Bradley Lucas. Eventually switching to bass and tuba at age 12, after moving to New York City in 1933 he played with Kaiser Marshall, then joined the Royal Sunset Orchestra, where he played from 1933 to 1942.
During the 1940s, Lucas appeared on record with Hot Lips Page, Coleman Hawkins, Eddie Heywood, Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, James P. Johnson, J.J. Johnson, Ben Webster, Erroll Garner, and Eddie South.
He toured and recorded with Illinois Jacquet from 1947 to 1953, recording in Detroit with Jacquet’s all-star band which included Sonny Stitt, Leo Parker, Sir Charles Thompson, Maurice Simon and Shadow Wilson before returning to play with Heywood again from 1954 to 1956.
He also recorded in the 1950s with Ruby Braff, Charlie Byrd, and Teddy Wilson. In his last two decades he worked primarily as a studio musician backing up groups at Apollo Theater performances, playing jazz only occasionally. Double bassist Al Lucas passed away on June 19, 1983 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Singleton Palmer was born on November 13, 1912 in St. Louis, Missouri and began playing cornet at age 11, and was actively playing gigs with the Mose Wiley Band in St. Louis by 14. 1928 saw him playing tuba, and joined Oliver Cobb’s Rhythm Kings in 1929. His first recordings were with Cobb in 1929, and he continued to perform with the band through 1934.
Following Cobb’s death in 1931, Eddie Johnson took over leadership for the band, renaming it the St. Louis Crackerjacks. He recorded with the band under Johnson’s leadership in 1932, and switched to string bass in 1933. The following year Palmer joined Dewey Jackson on the riverboats, performing with him until 1941.
Singleton took a job at Scullin Steel, where he joined the company’s 45-piece big band, which performed for the employees in the cafeteria during the daily lunch hour. Additionally he began performing with George Hudson’s first band in 1941, continuing until 1947. Toward the end of the decade he got higher-profile performing and recording opportunities, including with Clark Terry in 1947 and Jimmy Forrest in 1948. In 1947 he joined Count Basie’s 18-piece jazz band, touring for 3 years and recording 11 sides.
In 1950 Palmer left Basie’s group and started his own band, the Dixieland Six. He led this Dixieland jazz ensemble in jam sessions at the Universal Dance Hall on the DeBaliviere Strip, performed at Gaslight Square at the Opera House, and recorded six albums between 1960 and 1967. Late in his life he became a source for jazz historians, offering oral history testimonies of his early years in the music industry.
Multi-instrumentalist Singleton Palmer, who played bass, cornet and tuba, and recorded with blues musicians Big Joe Williams and Sonny Boy Williamson, passed away on March 8, 1993, St. Louis.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ariel de la Portilla was born on November 10, 1975 in Matanzas, Cuba where he lived until immigrating with his parents to Miami, Florida when he was five. Growing up in the Little Havana neighborhood he was surrounded by the sounds of Cuban and Brazilian music as well as simultaneously experiencing American music and culture that gave his childhood a distinctly unique dichotomy that later proved to have become a crucial aspect of his life, education, and musical identity.
After graduating from high school in 1994, he left Miami to pursue his interests in the double bass. Awarded a music scholarship to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, he dedicated most of his time to studying classical bass and jazz. He remained at CCM until recruited by the University of Miami in 1996 to study under the instruction of Don Coffman, Matt Bonnelli and Lucas Drew.
Since arriving in New York City, he has performed with jazz and Latin musicians including Ray Vega, Dave Valentin, Patato Valdez, Candido Camero, Edy Martinez, Willie Martinez, Peter Erskine, Eddie Daniels, and Sonny Bravo.
Bassist Ariel De La Portilla is currently a member of the Ze Luis Quartet and a new conceptual guitar trio, Lengua Moderna.
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