Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Fatty George was born Franz Georg Pressler on April 24, 1927 in Vienna, Austria. He originally modeled himself after Benny Goodman but subsequently became a bebop player under the banner of Charlie Parker. He started out playing in clubs near the end of World War II for an audience of both American and Russian soldiers. his setlist adhering to the enormously popular swing recipes of the era.
He became involved in personally running nightclubs in both Germany and Austria, opening Fatty’s Jazz Casino in Insbruck, Austria in the early ’50s and Fatty’s Saloon in Vienna in 1958. His Fatty George Jazzband performed throughout the European continent at both clubs and festivals and released a series of albums under his own name, including Two Sides of Fatty George and Fatty’s Saloon. His playing partners often included the brothers Bill Grah and Heinz Grah on piano and trombone, respectively.
His recorded legacy includes about 50 recordings made over four decades beginning in the Forties, covering aspects of European history as well as ongoing developments in jazz itself.
Clarinettist Fatty George, who may have acquired the stage name of Fatty George with the help of double servings of apple strudel and goulash, transitioned on March 29, 1982.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marty Krystall was born on April 12, 1951 in Los Angeles, California. He beame fluent on tenor saxophone and clarinet and his sound was somewhat influenced by Ben Webster but is open to adventurous improvisations.
Marty has appeared in several of Buell Neidlinger’s groups through the years. Since the late 1970s he has worked as a Los Angeles studio musician and helped run the K2B2 record label. He has recorded with Neidlinger in Krystall Klear and the Buells, Buellgrass which was later renamed String Jazz, the group Thelonious, and a tribute album to Herbie Nichols.
He has recorded with Leon Kottke, Aretha Franklin, Peter Erskine, Hugh Schick, Yasushi Yoneki, and his marty krystall spatial quartet. Saxophonist and clarinetist Marty Krystall, who is a member of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, continues to explore the genres of jazz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Fraser MacPherson was born on April 10, 1928 in Saint Boniface, Manitoba, Canada. He moved with his parents to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada as a child where he learned piano, clarinet, and alto and tenor saxophones. After relocating to Vancouver, British Columbia to continue a commerce degree, he played in bands led by Ray Norris, Dave Robbins, Paul Ruhland, and Doug Parke.
He led his own groups and eventually took over the leadership of the Cave supper club band.In 1958 Fraser took a year’s leave to study in New York City, adding flute to his list of instruments.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s MacPherson was a first-call studio player in Vancouver, as well as leading the house band at the Cave supper club. He also taught briefly in the Jazz and Commercial Music department at Vancouver Community College, where his students included future Powder Blues Band baritone saxophonist Gordie Bertram and New Orleans based saxophonist and jazz educator John Doheny.
Fraser’s debut album as leader of a small jazz group, Live at the Planetarium, was recorded for broadcast on the French-language CBC radio network. He leased the master tapes and released them on his own independent label, West End Records. The album was re-released by Concord Records, and he recorded several other releases for them. He also recorded for Sackville and Justin Time record labels.
In the summer of 1993, Pacific Music Industry Association (PMIA) created the Fraser MacPherson Scholarship Fund which annually awards grants of $2000 to four to eight aspiring music students.
Fraser MacPherson, who won a Juno Award for Best Jazz Album and was awarded the Order of Canada, transitioned in Vancouver at the age of 65 on September 27, 1993.
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Daily Dose Of jazz…
Peanuts Hucko was born Michael Andrew Hucko in Syracuse, New York on April 7, 1918. He moved to New York City in 1939 where he played tenor saxophone with Will Bradley, Tommy Reynolds, and Joe Marsala until 1940.
After a brief time with Charlie Spivak, he joined the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band while serving in Europe during World War II. During this time, Peanuts began to concentrate on the clarinet. He was featured in Miller’s hard-driving versions of Stealin’ Apples and Mission to Moscow. Post-war, he played in the bands of Benny Goodman, Ray McKinley, Eddie Condon and Jack Teagarden. From 1950 to 1955, he was busy in New York as a studio musician for CBS and ABC.
He continued working with Goodman and Teagarden, When he visited Tokyo, Japan in 1951 as the lead alto saxophonist in Benny Goodman’s Orchestra, he listened to clarinetist Shoji Suzuki and his Rhythm Aces. With Suzuki and his band, they recorded the song Suzukake No Michi, which broke sales records in Japan. He then joined the Louis Armstrong All-Stars for two years from 1958 to 1960.
Hucko led his own group at Eddie Condon’s Club from 1964 to 1966. He became known for his work with Frank Sinatra as the clarinet soloist on Cole Porter’s What Is This Thing Called Love?, which was featured on Sinatra’s album In the Wee Small Hours. In 1964, he opened his own nightclub Peanuts Hucko’s Navarre, in Denver, Colorado which featured his singer wife Louise Tobin and Ralph Sutton. From 1966, he was featured regularly at Dick Gibson’s Colorado jazz parties where he appeared with the Ten Greats of Jazz, later called the World’s Greatest Jazz Band.
The Seventies saw Peanuts leading the Glenn Miller Orchestra and toured across the U.S. and abroad. He also toured with the Million Airs Orchestra, and appeared with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra. The next decade he toured with his Pied Piper Quintet before going into semi-retirement with his wife in Denton, Texas. He recorded his last session Swing That Music in 1992 featuring Tobin, trumpeter Randy Sandke, and pianist Johnny Varro.
As a composer he wrote or co-wrote See You Again, A Bientot, Peanut Butter, Blintzes Bagel Boogie, Falling Tears, First Friday, Tremont Place, and Sweet Home Suite. Big band clarinetist Peanuts Hucko, who sometimes played saxophone, transitioned in Fort Worth, Texas on June 19, 2003 at the age of 85.
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Three Wishes
Pannonica asked Benny Winestone what his three wishes would be and he said:
- “There’s only one wish in the world I would want: a visa to enter the United States legally.”
- “There’s only two other wishes, and that’s money and youth. What else could I wish for? That’s it!.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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