Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Samuel D. Margolis was born on November 1, 1923 in Boston, Massachusetts. Early in his career he played locally with Shad Collins, Vic Dickenson, Bobby Hackett, Nat Pierce, and Rex Stewart.
Between 1954 and 1958 Sam worked extensively with Ruby Braff and as sidemen for other musicians, including Pee Wee Russell. He would continue working intermittently with Braff for several decades.
In 1970 Margolis appeared briefly in the parade scene in the Dick Van Dyke movie Some Kind of a Nut. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he played often in the New York area, with Ed Polcer, Buzzy Drootin, Max Kaminsky, Roy Eldridge, Tony Bennet, Claude Hopkins, Dill Jones, Vic Dickenson, and Red Balaban.
Clarinetist and saxophonist Sam Margolis, who near the end of his life moved to Deerfield Beach, Florida, transitioned from prostate cancer on March 27, 1996.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ollie “Dink” Johnson was born in Biloxi, Mississippi on October 28, 1892. He was the younger brother of double bassist William Manuel “Bill” Johnson. He worked around Mississippi and New Orleans before moving to the western United States in the early 1910s. He played around Nevada and California, often with his older brother. He played with the Original Creole Orchestra, mostly on drums.
He made his first recordings in 1922 on clarinet with Kid Ory’s Band. He made more recordings in the 1940s and 1950s, mostly on piano, although Johnson recorded some one-man band sessions, playing all three of his instruments by over-dubbing.
His piano style was influenced by his brother-in-law Jelly Roll Morton, and his clarinet playing by Larry Shields. The tunes he wrote included The Krooked Blues, recorded by King Oliver and So Different Blues.
Pianist, clarinetist, and drummer Dink Johnson, who played in the Dixieland genre, transitioned in Portland, Oregon on November 29, 1954.
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Daily Dose O fJazz…
Bill Stegmeyer was born October 8, 1916 in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky from 1934 to 1936, and following his studies he played through the rest of the decade with Austin Wylie, Glenn Miller, and Bob Crosby.
In the 1940s, he did arrangement work and played clarinet and occasionally, saxophone with Billy Butterfield, Yank Lawson, Bobby Hackett, Will Bradley, and Billie Holiday from 1945 to 1947. He arranged for WXYZ, a Detroit radio station, for two years starting in 1948, then followed this with arranging Your Hit Parade for eight years.
In the 1950s he also continued to play jazz with Lawson, Butterfield, Bob Haggart, Jimmy McPartland, and Ruby Braff. He went to work for CBS in the early 1960s.
Clarinetist and arranger Bill Stegmeyer, whose only recordings as a leader were five tunes for Signature Records in 1945 and some V-Discs, transitioned from cancer in Long Island, New York on August 19, 1968 at the age of 51.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Buddy Featherstonhaugh was born Rupert Edward Lee Featherstonhaugh on October 4, 1909 in Paris, France. After the family moved to England he studied in Sussex, and had his first professional gig with Pat O’Malley in 1927. He went on to play with Spike Hughes from 1930 to 1932, and toured England in Billy Mason’s band behind Louis Armstrong that same year and in 1933 recorded with a group called The Cosmopolitans. which included Fletcher Allen. In 1935 he recorded with Valaida Snow and two years later with Benny Carter.
During World War II, he led a Royal Air Force band which included in its ranks Vic Lewis, Don McAffer, and Jack Parnell. They went on to record as The BBC Radio Rhythm Club Sextet during 1943-45. After the war Buddy toured Iceland in 1946, and then left the jazz scene, taking up work as a car salesman.
1956 saw his return to playing and recording in a quintet with trumpeter Leon Calvert, Roy Sidewell, Kenny Wheeler, and Bobby Wellins. He also appeared with the band at Butlin’s Holiday Camps in the mid-1950s. He toured the Middle East in 1957, after which he retired.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Buddy Featherstonhaugh, who was an occasional racing car driver who won the 1934 Albi Grand Prix, transitioned on July 12, 1976.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Luther Johnson was born on September 30, 1912 in Jacksonville, Florida and studied piano as a child and began playing the alto saxophone at the age of 16. After working with lesser-known bands he studied in conservatories in Wisconsin and Illinois before attending Marquette University.
While in Milwaukee, Wisconsin he played with Jabbo Smith and others. He worked with Baron Lee and Tiny Bradshaw, and in 1936 joined Erskine Hawkins, with whom he performed into the early 1940s, recording with him from 1939 to 1942. He composed Tuxedo Junction with Hawkins and appeared with the band in the short film Deviled Hams in 1937.
Around mid-1946 he recorded under Bill Johnson and Orchestra, with several of the members becoming the Musical Notes. Bill Johnson and the Musical Notes recorded for Harlem, RCA, King, Regal, Tru-Blue.He recorded for Ronnex as the Bill Johnson Quartet, and the Bill Johnson Quintet for Baton. Over the years, there were many personnel changes, but Bill and Gus Gordon were on all the recordings.
In the Fifties failing health caused the breakup of the group, although he re-formed it on a couple of occasions. Alto saxophonist, clarinetist, and arranger Bill Johnson, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1957, transitioned on July 5, 1960 at 47 years old in New York City.
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