Daily Dose Of Jazz..

Walter Barnes was born on July 8, 1905 in Vicksburg, Mississippi but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He studied under Franz Schoepp and attended the Chicago Musical College and the American Conservatory of Music.

Leading his own bands from the early 1920s, he also played with Detroit Shannon and his Royal Creolians. After Shannon’s retinue became dissatisfied with his leadership, Barnes took control of this group as well. He played mostly in Chicago, though the band did hold a residency at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City as well. His band recorded in 1928-29 for Brunswick Records.

He toured the American South in the 1930s to considerable success, touring there yearly and  by 1938 the ensemble grew to sixteen members. Around this time, Barnes also worked as a columnist for the Chicago Defender newspaper, and used his position to advertise his own tours and promote other entertainers on the same touring trail to Black audiences. Barnes is thus credited as an early originator of what was known as the “Chitlin’ Circuit”; a network of entertainment venues where it was safe and acceptable for Black entertainers to perform.

Barnes was one of the victims of the Rhythm Club Fire in Natchez, Mississippi, on April 23, 1940. When the club caught fire, he had the group continue playing the song “Marie” in order to keep the crowd from stampeding out of the building. All of the band members except for drummer Walter Brown and bassist Arthur Edward were among the 201 victims of the fire.

Clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader Walter Barnes, whose death was repeatedly immortalized in song, passed away on April 23, 1940.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bruce Turner was born on July 5, 1922 in Saltburn, North Yorkshire, England and educated at Dulwich College. He learned to play the clarinet as a schoolboy and began playing alto saxophone while serving in the Royal Air Force in 1943 during World War II. He played with Freddy Randall from 1948~53 and then worked on the Queen Mary in a dance band and in a quartet with Dill Jones and Peter Ind.

In 1950 he briefly studied under Lee Konitz in New York City. His first period with Humphrey Lyttelton ran from 1953 to 1957. After leaving Lyttelton he led his Jump Band from 1957~65, which was featured along with his arrangements in the 1961 film Living Jazz. In 1961, Turner recorded Jumpin’ at the NFT (National Film Theatre) and the album was issued later that year on Doug Dobell’s 77 Records label, coinciding with the film’s release.

In January 1963, the British music magazine New Musical Express reported that the biggest trad jazz event to be staged in Britain had taken place at Alexandra Palace. The event included George Melly, Diz Disley, Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer, Monty Sunshine, Bob Wallis, Alex Welsh, Mick Mulligan and Turner.

Returning to Randall’s group from 1964 to 1966, he then played with Don Byas and Acker Bilk till 1970. He went on to work with Wally Fawkes, John Chilton, Stan Greig), Alex Welsh, and Dave Green. He led small ensembles in the 1990s until his death. His autobiography Hot Air, Cool Music, published by Quartet Books, appeared in 1984. He wrote a column on jazz for the Daily Worker. Saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader Bruce Turner passed away on November 28, 1993 in Newport Pagnell.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Harry Shields was born on June 30, 1899 at 2319 First Street in Uptown, New Orleans, Louisiana, two doors down from Buddy Bolden’s house. He spent almost his whole career in New Orleans. He played with the bands of Norman Brownlee, Sharkey Bonano, Tom Brown, Johnny Wiggs, and others.

Many of his fellow musicians regarded Harry as a superior clarinetist to his brother Larry, who became a noted musician. Wiggs had once commented that Harry was the only clarinetist he’d heard who could always play the right note without fail. He was a part of George Girard and His New Orleans Five, and Johnny Wiggs and His New Orleans Band.

Clarinetist Harry Shields passed away in his hometown on January 19, 1971.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Albert King was born on June 19, 1912 in Panama and raised in Kingston, Jamaica where he attended Alpha Boys School. During the 1930s he led his own band, Bertie King and his Rhythm Aces, one of Jamaica’s foremost dance orchestras.

Leaving the island in 1936, he sailed to England on the same ship as his friend Jiver Hutchinson. Once in London he joined Ken Snakehips Johnson’s West Indian Dance Band, then played with Leslie Hutchinson’s band. He also worked with visiting American musicians including Benny Carter, George Shearing and Coleman Hawkins.

In 1937, while in the Netherlands he recorded four sides in the Netherlands with Benny Carter, and the next year he recorded with Django Reinhardt in Paris, France. In 1939 he joined the Royal Navy. He left the Navy in 1943 and formed his own band, also working and recording with Nat Gonella.

Returning to Jamaica in 1951, he assembled his own band, the Casa Blanca Orchestra, playing in the mento style. With no Jamaican record labels at this time, he arranged for his recordings to be pressed in a plant in Lewisham, England, owned by Decca Records. Bertie returned a number of times to the United Kingdom, working and recording with Kenny Baker, George Chisholm, Chris Barber, Kenny Graham and Humphrey Lyttelton. During this period in his career he toured Asia and Africa with his own band and played and recorded in London with some of the leading Trinidadian calypsonians.

King went on to lead the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation house band in the 1950s. His sidemen included Ernest Ranglin and Tommy Mowatt. He recorded extensively with this outfit, until 1965 when he moved to the USA. His last known public performance was in New York City in 1967. Clarinetist and saxophonist Bertie King passed away in 1981.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz

Sid Phillips was born Isador Simon Phillips on June 14, 1907 in London, England into a Jewish family. He learned violin and piano as a child, and played reeds in his teens as a member of his brother’s European band. He got his start in the music business as a publisher and director for Edison Bell.

In 1930, Phillips began writing arrangements for Bert Ambrose, and joined Ambrose’s ensemble in 1933, remaining there until 1937. Towards the end of the decade he was playing in the United States on radio and freelancing in clubs.

During World War II, Sid served in the Royal Air Force, then put together his own quartet in 1946 and wrote several pieces for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He led a Dixieland jazz band of his own formation from 1949, and his sidemen variously included George Shearing, Colin Bailey, Tommy Whittle, and Kenny Ball.

Phillips’s first recordings under his own name were made in 1928. In 1937 through 1938, a number of his recordings were issued in the United States, through a contract he signed with Irving Mills and issued on Mills’ Variety label, as well as Vocalion, Brunswick and Columbia labels, though most of his recordings were made in England.

Clarinetist, arranger and bandleader Sid Phillips, who continued to record as a leader well into the 1970s, passed away on May 23, 1973 at aged 65 in Chertsey, Surrey, England.

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