Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Abe Most was born on February 27, 1920 in New York City, New York. He began his career in 1939 as a member of Les Brown’s Big Band. After serving three years in the Army during World War II beginning in 1942, he became a member of Tommy Dorsey’s Big Band.
Most made a few albums with smaller labels between 1946 and 1984, including Superior, Trend, Annunciata and Camard. His last two albums were Abe Most Live! and I Love You Much Too Much.
He was a studio musician for seven decades, recording on albums by Ted Gärdestad, Dick Haymes, Randy Newman, Dory Previn, Laurindo Almeida, Dominic Frontiere, Henry Mancini, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Ray Conniff, and George Shearing, as well as Joni Mitchell, Cher, Earth, Wind & Fire, and B. B. King among others. He can also be heard playing on the soundtrack of the film How to Marry a Millionaire.
Clarinetist Abe Most, the older brother of flautist Sam Most, recorded three albums as a leader and thirty-one as a sideman, transitioned on October 10, 2002.
More Posts: bandleader,clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lajos Dudas was born February 18, 1941 in Budapest, Hungary and studied at the Béla Bartók Conservatory and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in his home city. He then appeared on concert tours throughout in Europe, not only as a jazz and rock musician but also as a soloist in works such as Carl Maria von Weber’s Clarinet Quintet, Igor Stravinsky’s Solo Pieces for Clarinet and Alexander Glazunov’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone. He won international recognition with his successful composition Urban Blues at the 11th International Jazz Competition in Monaco in 1982.
In the 1980s he was ranked high year after year in the Top People Poll of the International Jazz Forum. After his period as a freelance musician from 1963 to 1973, Dudas has been a lecturer at the School of Music in Neuss/GER and also taught from 1975 to 1985 at the Rheinland College of Education. In addition, since 1976, after a spell concentrating on classical music, he was recorded, worked radio productions and tours with Karl Berger, Gerd Dudek, Albert Mangelsdorff, Tom van der Geld, Charles Tolliver, Howard Johnson, Attila Zoller, Philipp van Endert, Leonard Jones, Theo Jörgensmann, Tommy Vig…
Over the course of his career Lajos has composed works commissioned by among several others, Frankfurt Radio Jazz Group, West German Radio & Television/Cologne, and Bavarian Radio Munich, and has performed at major European festivals.
Between 1996 and 2006 he was Artistic Director for the Concert Series in Neuss/GER. He also composed works for clarinet, woodwind chamber music and a Clarinet Method in 2 volumes. Clarinetist Lajos Dudas continues to explore jazz and other genres of music.
More Posts: bandleader,clarinet,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Three Wishes
Gerry Mulligan was approached by Pannonica and asked if he could be granted three wishes what his be and his response was:
- “To play high trumpet accurately, drums, sing. And if there was a fourth, money.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
More Posts: baroness,clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,music,pannonica,saxophone,three,wishes
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Le Roy Watts Harris Jr. was born on February 12, 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri. He played violin while young, then learned saxophone and clarinet. By age 13 he was playing with pianist Chick Finney.
Relocating to Chicago, Illinois around 1930 he played with Ray Nance from 1931 to 1936. Following this stint he worked with Earl Hines from 1937 to 1943. He joined the United States Navy during World War II and played in a band from 1943 to 1944. After his discharge he played with Bill Doggett, Ben Thigpen, Tadd Dameron, Sarah Vaughan, Singleton Palmer, and Wynonie Harris, then returned to play with Hines once more.
In the early 1950s he led his own band at the Kit Kat club in New York. He resettled in St. Louis again in 1957 and played with Eddie Johnson from 1960 to 1971.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Le Roy Harris Jr., whose father and uncle were both jazz musicians, transitioned on February 16, 2005 in his hometown of St. Louis.
More Posts: bandleader,clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alvin “Abe” Aaron was born on January 27, 1910 in Toronto, Canada on January 27, 1910. His father, a bandleader with a theater band in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, had him playing reeds in the band for more than ten years. Early in the 1940s he left this group to play alto saxophone in the big band of Jack Teagarden, with which he recorded in 1942.
Moving to Hollywood, California in 1943, Abe played with Horace Heidt on radio. From 1945 to 1947 he played with Skinnay Ennis, then returned to work under Heidt through 1949. Through the 1950s he played in Les Brown’s Band of Renown, touring Europe and East Asia. He recorded often as a member of Brown’s band for Coral and Capitol record companies. In the band, he played clarinet and alto saxophone in the early 1950s, then switched to tenor and baritone. He also recorded on bass clarinet with Billy Usselton.
Clarinetist and saxophonist Abe Aaron transitioned on January 31, 1970.
More Posts: clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone