Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William “Bill” Takas was born March 5, 1932 in Toledo, Ohio and played in the band that backed Bob Dorough from the mid-1950s. His first recordings with the singer were made in New York City in 1956, Devil May Care for Bethlehem Records.
In the following years Bill also worked with Frank Socolow Sextet, Nat Pierce, Tal Farlow, Dan Terry and Pee Wee Russell. In the 1960s he played with the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band and the bands of Cy Coleman, Don Elliott, Benny Goodman, Doc Severinsen and Les DeMerle. In 1962 he made a guest appearance with Ruby Braff at the Newport Jazz Festival.
From the 1970s to the late 1990s Takas continued to work in a duo with Bob Dorough, recording Beginning to See the Light in 1976, in a trio, heard on Devil May Care II with Al Levitt, and Right On My Way Home in 1979 with Grady Tate, with guest soloists such as Art Farmer and Phil Woods.
Bill was in the all-star formation Children of All Ages with Randy Brecker, Lew Tabackin, Arnie Lawrence, Pat Rebillot, Ron McClure, Buzzy Linhart, among others and Bill Goodwin. Together with Dorough, he released a Charlie Parker tribute album PHililogy in 1995.
Between 1956 and 1997, double and electric bassist Bill Takas was involved in 37 recording sessions in the field of jazz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bernard “Bunny” Brunel was born in Nice, France on March 2, 1950 and took up the electric and acoustic bass when he was fifteen. A self taught musician, he did attend for a time a classical conservatory to learn the basic technique of playing with the bow on the bass.
Brunel is a founding member of the jazz fusion band CAB along with Dennis Chambers, and Tony MacAlpine. Since their formation in 2000, they have released four studio albums and two live albums. Their second album, CAB 2, received a nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album at the 2002 Grammy Awards. Other musicians who have been members of CAB include Patrice Rushen, Virgil Donati, David Hirschfelder, and Brian Auger.
Bassist Bunny Brunel, who has played with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter, and who has recorded ten albums as a leader, is involved in musical instrument design, film and television scoring, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Tarto was born Vincent Joseph Tortoriello on February 22, 1902 in Newark, New Jersey. He played trombone from age 12 before settling on tuba as a teenager. When World War I hit, he enlisted and played in an Army band where he was wounded, and received his release in 1919.
The 1920s saw him working with Cliff Edwards, Paul Specht, Sam Lanin, and Vincent Lopez, in addition to doing arrangement work for Fletcher Henderson and Chick Webb and playing in pit orchestras on Broadway. Throughout the 1920s recording copiously, he accompanied among others, Bing Crosby, The Boswell Sisters, Ethel Waters, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, Miff Mole, Red Nichols, The Dorsey Brothers, Bix Beiderbecke, and Phil Napoleon.
During the 1930s he spent two years playing with Roger Wolfe Kahn, then worked extensively as a session musician both on tuba and double bass. He also played with radio ensembles and in theater and symphony orchestras. He remained active as a performer into the 1980s, playing in Dixieland jazz revival groups in his last years. Tubist and bassist Joe Tarto passed away on August 24, 1986 in Morristown, New Jersey.
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Three Wishes
Nica asked Ray McKinney what he would wish for if he was given three and his response was:
- “I want to be the greatest person in the world.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jack Lesberg was born February 14, 1920 in Boston, Massachusetts. He had the misfortune of playing in that city’s Cocoanut Grove on the night in 1942 when 492 people lost their lives in a fire. His escape was memorialized by fellow bassist Charles Mingus.
Jack performed in the New York City Symphony under Leonard Bernstein in the 1940s. Lesberg continued to tour in the 1980s and performed in Menlo Park, California in 1984. Jack played with Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, Jack Teagarden, Coleman Hawkins, Sarah Vaughan, Urbie Green, George Barnes, Ruth Brown, Tony Bennett, Johnny Hodges and Benny Goodman among others, He went on several international tours.
Double-bassist Jack Lesberg, who co~led two sessions and twenty-one as a sideman, passed away from Alzheimer’s Disease in Englewood, California at the age of 85 on September 17, 2005.
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