Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ernesto Caceres was born on November 22, 1911 in Rockport, Texas and learned to play the clarinet, guitar, alto and baritone saxophone. He first played professionally in 1928 in local Texas ensembles. He and his brother Emilio moved to Detroit, Michigan before moving to New York City, taking work as session musicians. In 1937 they made live nationwide appearances on Benny Goodman’s popular radio series Camel Caravan which created a sensation and made them jazz stars.
In 1938 Ernesto became a member of Bobby Hackett’s band, then worked as a sideman with Jack Teagarden and Glenn Miller’s orchestra from 1940 to 1942. While with Miller, he made an appearance in the films Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives. Time with Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, and Tommy Dorsey followed later in the 1940s. In 1949 he put together his own quartet, playing at the Hickory Log in New York. He was a frequent performer with the Garry Moore Orchestra on television.
At the beginning of the 1960s he played with the Billy Butterfield Band. In 1964 he moved back to Texas and played in a band with brother Emilio from 1968 until his death. He spent some time in 1965 and 1966 at Mint Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada and at the Holiday Hotel in Reno, Nevada with the Johnny Long Band. Saxophonist, clarinetist and guitarist Ernesto Caceres passed away from cancer on January 10, 1971.
More Posts: bandleader,clarinet,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Three Wishes
Pannonica inquired of Leo Wright, if given three, what would he wish for and he answered her by saying:
- “I wish that people would be more individualistic.”
- “The problem in my profession, that the supply is greater than the demand… I wish that that wasn’t so.”
- “I wish the public in general would realize the importance of jazz.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
More Posts: baroness,clarinet,flute,history,instrumental,jazz,music,pannonica,saxophone,three,wishes
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Born in Rock Island, Illinois on November 1, 1912 Franz Jackson got his first lessons on saxophone from Jerome Don Pasquall and later studied at the Chicago Musical College.
Early in his career, Jackson played with Albert Ammons’s band and for much of the 1930s he was based in Chicago, Illinois. He toured with Fletcher Henderson in 1938, then played with Roy Eldridge’s band in New York City. In 1940 he toured with Fats Waller and then went to work with Earl Hines.
Following small band work back in New York City, Franz joined Cootie Williams’s big band, played in Boston, Massachusetts with Frankie Newton, toured with Eldridge, and worked with Wilbur De Paris at Jimmy Ryan’s in the city.
Jackson formed his own band in Chicago in 1957, the Original Jass All Stars and with this group he made overseas tours, including playing in Vietnam. Moving to Dowagiac, Michigan in 1975, he formed another band, the Jazz Entertainers, in 1980.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Franz Jackson, who played in the Chicago jazz school, passed away on May 6, 2008 in Niles, Michigan. The Franz Jackson Collection at the Chicago Jazz Archive contains his papers and oral history material.
More Posts: bandleader,clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rudy Powell was born in New York City on October 28, 1907 and learned piano and violin while young before taking on the clarinet and saxophone. In the late 1920s, he played with June Clark, Gene Rodgers’s Revellers, and Cliff Jackson’s Krazy Kats.
Rudy worked extensively as a sideman throughout his career. Among his credits in the 1930s are Elmer Snowden, Dave Nelson, Sam Wooding, Kaiser Marshall, Rex Stewart, Fats Waller, Edgar Hayes, and Claude Hopkins. The Forties saw him playing with Teddy Wilson, Andy Kirk, Fletcher Henderson, Eddie South, Don Redman, Chris Columbus, Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder and Hopkins again.
By the 1950s and through the Sixties Powell was with Jimmy Rushing, Buddy Tate, Benton Heath, Ray Charles, and Buddy Johnson. Never recording as a leader, he did record with Cat Anderson, Al Casey, Duke Ellington, Cliff Jackson, Jo Jones, Lucky Millinder, Jimmy Rushing, and Saints & Sinners. He continued playing intermittently into the 1970s and was a part of the photo A Great Day In Harlem.
Clarinetist and saxophonist Rudy Powell, who later changed his name to Musheed Karweem when he joined the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, passed away at age 69 on October 30, 1976.
More Posts: clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alphonse Floristan Picou was born on October 19, 1878 in New Orleans, Louisiana into a prosperous middle-class Creole of Color family in downtown NOLA. Taking to music early by 16, he was working as a professional musician on both the guitar and clarinet, concentrating on the latter. To appease his family’s frown on music he trained and worked as a tinsmith, but in demand as a clarinetist, he made most of his living from music.
He played classical music with the Creole section’s Lyre Club Symphony Orchestra and played with various dance bands and brass bands including those of Bouboul Fortunea Augustat, Bouboul Valentin, Oscar DuConge, Manuel Perez, Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson, the Excelsior Brass Band, the Olympia Brass Band among others.
Due to his light-skin Picou sometimes worked with white bands as well in his youth. He was one of the early musicians playing in the new style that was developing in the city, not yet known as “jazz”. He sometimes played with Buddy Bolden, perhaps the most important force in the musical change. He was an influence for many of the up and coming younger clarinetists. His subtle variations are usually more melodic embellishments than what would later be called improvisation.
At least once he went north to Chicago, Illinois around 1917 and briefly to New York City in the early 1920s. Not liking life up North, he spent most of his career in his home city, writing tunes for King Oliver that included Alligator Hop and Olympia Rag.
Clarinetist and arranger Alphonse Picou, perhaps best known for originating the clarinet part on the standard High Society, passed away on February 4, 1961 in New Orleans.
More Posts: clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,music