Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Overton Smith was born on September 22, 1926 in Sacramento, California and grew up in Oakland, California where he began playing clarinet at the age of ten. Putting together a jazz group to play for dances at 13, by 15 he joined the Oakland Symphony. Idolizing Benny Goodman, after high school and a brief cross-country tour with a dance band, he ended his romance for the road. Giving notice when the band reached Washington, D.C., he was encouraged by an older band member to get the best education he could, so he headed to New York.
He started his formal music studies at the Juilliard School of Music, playing in New York jazz clubs at night. Uninspired at Juilliard, he returned to California after hearing the music of Darius Milhaud, who was then teaching at Mills College in Oakland. At Mills, Smith met pianist Dave Brubeck, with whom he often played, was a member of the Dave Brubeck Octet, and later occasionally subbed for saxophonist Paul Desmond in the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Brubeck’s 1960 album Brubeck à la mode that featured ten of his own compositions. Rejoining Brubeck’s group in the 1990s.
Bill went on to study composition with Roger Sessions at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was graduated with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. He won the Prix de Paris, study at the Paris Conservatory, was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1957, and spent six years in Italy. After a teaching stint at the University of Southern California, he went on to a thirty-year career at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle, Washington. He co-led the forward-thinking Contemporary Group, first with Robert Suderburg, and then with trombonist Stuart Dempster, from 1966 to 1997.
Clarinetist and composer Bill Smith, who recorded in jazz, classical and third stream genres, passed away at age 93 in his home from complications of prostate cancer on February 29, 2020.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Douglas Ewart was born on September 13, 1946 in Kingston, Jamaica and emigrated to the United States in 1963. Settling in Chicago, Illinois he became associated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1967, studying with Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell. He served as that organization’s president from 1979 to 1986.
Douglas recorded eight albums as a leader and has performed or recorded fifteen with J. D. Parran, Muhal Richard Abrams, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, Alvin Curran, Anthony Davis, Robert Dick, Von Freeman, Joseph Jarman, Amina Claudine Myers, Roscoe Mitchell, James Newton, Rufus Reid, Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor, Richard Teitelbaum, Henry Threadgill, Hamid Drake, Don Byron, Malachi Favors Maghostut, Muhal Richard Abrams, Spencer Barefield, Tani Tabbal, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Joëlle Léandre, Bernard Santacruz, Michael Zerang, Chico Freeman, Dennis González, Yusef Lateef, Adam Rudolph,
In 1992 he collaborated with Canadian artist Stan Douglas on the video installation Hors-champs which was featured at Documenta 9 in Kassel, Germany. The installation features Ewart in improvisation of Albert Ayler’s Spirits Rejoice with musicians George Lewis, Kent Carter, and Oliver Johnson.
Douglas Ewart has lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota since 1990 and plays sopranino and alto saxophones, clarinets, bassoon, flute, bamboo flutes, panpipes, and didgeridoo; as well as Rastafarian hand drums.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jean Omer was born in Nivelles, Belgium on September 9, 1912. He played violin before switching to clarinet and saxophone, playing with local groups in Strassburg and Brussels. He worked in France in the band of Billy Smith, then played with the Golden Stars and in René Compère’s band.
Omer participated in a recording session with Gus Deloof in 1931. Following a tour with Fud Candrix’s Carolina Stomp Chasers, he founded his own group, which included at times, Lauderic Caton and Jean Robert. He and Robert De Kers accompanied Josephine Baker in the mid-1930s and played in a group with Ernst van’t Hoff late in the decade.
In 1941, he recorded with Rudy Bruder. He settled in Brussels and led a band into the 1960s which played at the club Le Boeuf sur le Toit. Clarinetist, saxophonist, and bandleader Jean Omer passed away on May 30, 1994 in Brussels, Belgium.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roy Willox was born August 31, 1929 in Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England into a musical family in 1929. At 16 he initially played with Johnny Claes for a short time in 1945 and then worked in other well-known bands before joining the Ted Heath Orchestra for a five-year stint from 1950 to 1955. During this time he also worked in a band with Keith Christie.
A collaboration with Jack Parnell and other bands led to extensive freelance in television, radio and theater. In the field of jazz, he was part of Harry South’s band in the 1960s and 1970s. This period of performing saw him occasionally returning to the Heath band throughout the 1990s and 2000s, playing the Ted Heath Bands farewell concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2000.
In his later years Roy worked with Kenny Baker, the Robert Farnon Orchestra, and Laurie Johnson’s London Big Band. 2009 with the all-star formation The Allan Ganley Jazz Legacy. He was involved in 156 jazz recording sessions between 1951 and 2016 with Cleo Laine, Larry Page, George Chisholm, Beryl Bryden, Johnny Keating, Tubby Hayes, Kenny Clare, Dudley Moore, Louie Bellson, The London Jazz Chamber Group, Michel Legrand, Phil Woods, and the Len Phillips Big Band.
As a session musician, he is also in pictures of Bert Kaempfert, Tiny Tim ~ Live! At the Royal Albert Hall, and Harry Nilsson ~ A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night. Alto saxophonist Roy Willox, who also plays clarinet and flute, passed away on November 25, 2019.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billy Amstell was born on August 20, 1911 in London, England. At ten he played piano and at thirteen was teaching himself how to play the alto saxophone. He performed in Glasgow before moving to London in 1930, working with violinist Jack Harris.
During the next year, Billy recorded with Roy Fox and Spike Hughes and became a member of the Bert Ambrose Orchestra in which he played tenor saxophone. In the 1940s he worked for bandleader Geraldo and in the 1950s for the BBC Dance Orchestra, and in the 1960s while a studio musician he worked with George Chisholm.
The 1980s saw Amstell playing clarinet, releasing a solo album, Session After Midnight on the Zodiac label, and wrote his autobiography, Don’t Fuss, Mr. Ambrose. Saxophonist and clarinetist Billy Amstell, who continued to perform into his nineties, passed away on December 19, 2005 at the age of 94.
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