Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Ellsworth Russell, much better known by his nickname Pee Wee Russell was born on March 27, 1906 in Maplewood, Missouri but grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He began music studying the violin, followed by the piano and then drums. While none of these satisfied his musical acumen he became attracted to the clarinet when his father snuck him into an Elks Club dance and he witnessed the five-piece band. He bought an Albert-system instrument and took lessons from Charlie Merrill, a clarinetist in the pit band at the Broadway Theatre.
His family moved to St. Louis in 1920 and while in school at the Western Military Academy, Pee Wee played with various dance and jazz bands. By 1922 he was traveling and performing professionally with tent shows and riverboats but two years later settled in Chicago playing with notables as Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer.
Over the next two decades Russell built a career with his distinctive style that was somewhat unorthodox to his contemporaries and often was accused of playing out of tune. Yet he played with the likes of Coleman Hawkins, Louis Prima, Red Nichols, Art Hodes freelanced recording sessions and took up residence at “Nick’s” in Greenwich Village.
By 1940 Pee Wee’s health began to deteriorate exacerbated by his bout with alcoholism. In and out of hospitals and a breakdown was coupled with had periods when he could not play. In his latter years he played jazz festivals and international tours organized by George Wein including Newport in 1963 with Thelonious Monk. Playing Richard Nixon’s inaugural was his last gig with George Wein.
Clarinetist Pee Wee Russell died in an Alexandria, Virginia hospital just three weeks later on February 15, 1969. His greatly imaginative improvisations remain inspiration to clarinetists and in 1987 he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
More Posts: clarinet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
On March 3, 1906 Barney Bigard was born Albany Leon Bigard in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child he studied music and clarinet with Lorenzo Tio. In the early twenties his move to Chicago had him working and recording with Joe “King” Oliver, Johnny Dodds, Jelly Roll Morton and numerous others.
Bigard’s initial fame came as a tenor saxophonist in the twenties and was #2 behind Coleman Hawkins before moving to the clarinet. In 1927 his swinging style joined the ranks of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, a relationship that lasted till 1942, both as a featured soloist and section tenor. Credited with composing or co-composing several tunes, Barney’s most notable is the Ellington standard “Mood Indigo”.
Tiring of the road with Ellington, Bigard moved to Los Angeles getting into sound tracking, with an on-screen performance with Louis Armstrong in the 1946 film “New Orleans”. By the late 40’s he teamed with Kid Ory followed by once again touring the world with Louis Armstrong’s All Stars band from 1947 to 1955. In the late 50’s he played with Cozy Cole and became semi-retired by 1962, occasionally playing and recording with Art Hodes, Earl Hines and sometimes as a leader.
Considered one of the most distinctive clarinetists in jazz, composer and tenor saxophonist Barney Bigard passed away on June 27, 1980 in Culver City, California.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Murray was born on February 19, 1955 in Oakland, California to musical parents, his mother played piano and his father, guitar. He was introduced to jazz while in the Berkeley school system playing alto in the school band. By thirteen he was in a local group called the Notations of Soul, but it was hearing Sonny Rollins that gave him the inspiration to switch from alto to tenor.
Influenced by Stanly Crouch while attending Pomona College, he moved to New York at 20 during the jazz loft era in lower Manhattan. Joining up with Crouch they opened their own loft space called Studio Infinity and Crouch occasionally played drums in Murray’s trio with Mark Dressler.
Murray’s early work was raw filed with multiphonics, extreme volume and upper register forays. By 1976 he recorded his first album “Flowers For Albert” and along with Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett became a founding member of the World Saxophone Quartet. Around the same time Joseph Papp commissioned David for a big band assemblage that enjoyed a modicum of critical success.
Through the 80’s he continued to play with the WSQ, his octet and various small bands, recording mostly for Italy’s Black Saint label, showcasing his rough and unformed talent as a composer. His recording dates became a flurry for the next two decades, leading more sessions than any other contemporary jazz musician. His playing matured and he began relying on the standard jazz repertoire when playing in small combo configurations. Yet by the time he was 40, his relative predictability was offset by his attention to the craft of playing and his inimitable style while his increased skill as a composer. In addition to winning a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Group Performance for Blues for Coltrane: A Tribute to John Coltrane, over the course of his career he has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, received a Bird Award, the Jazzpar Prize and has been named Musician of the Year by Newsday and Musician of the Decade by the Village Voice.
Murray mainly plays tenor saxophone and bass clarinet influenced in the free jazz genre of Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp. He has played with a host of world-renowned musicians, of which he is a member and continues to perform, record and tour.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Buddy DeFranco was born Boniface Ferdinand Leonard DeFranco in Camden, New Jersey on February 17, 1923. By the age 14 he had won an amateur swing contest sponsored by Tommy Dorsey. Just four short years later he was working with the big bands of Gene Krupa in 1941 and Charlie Barnet in 1943. Those stints were followed with him playing off and on with Tommy Dorsey over the next few years.
Outside of a short-lived association with the Count Basie Septet in 1950, Buddy mainly lead his own bands from then on, playing and recording with Tal Farlow, Art Blakey, Kenny Drew and Sonny Clark, Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson as his sidemen, among others too numerous to name. He also played in some of Norman Granz’s Verve jam sessions and during the late 60’s DeFranco became the bandleader of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, an association that lasted until 1974. He has found more artistic success co-leading a quintet with Terry Gibbs off and on since the early 80’s and has recorded numerous albums.
Buddy DeFranco is considered one of the great clarinetists of all time and, until the rise of Eddie Daniels, he was indisputably the top clarinetist to emerge since 1940. It was DeFranco’s misfortune to be the best on an instrument that after the swing era dropped drastically in popularity and, unlike Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, he has never been a household name for the general public and while most jazz clarinet players were unable to adapt to fading popularity, Buddy Defranco was one of the few bebop musicians who successfully continued to play clarinet exclusively until he passed away on December 24, 2014 in Panama City, Florida at age 91.
More Posts: clarinet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Allie Wrubel was born in Middletown, Connecticut on January 15, 1905. He attended Wesleyan and Columbia Universities prior to playing saxophone and clarinet for a variety of famous swing bands. His musical career began in Greenwich Village where he roomed with his close friend and actor, James Cagney.
1934 saw Allie’s move to Hollywood to work for Warner Brothers as a contract songwriter. He was a major contributor to a large number of movies including Busby Berkeley films before moving to Disney in 1947. He also contributed to films such as “Make Mine Music”, “Duel In The Sun”, “I Walk Alone”, “Melody Time”, “Tulsa”, “Midnight Lace” and “Never Steal Anything Small”.
He collaborated with many lyricists such as Abner Silver, Herb Magidson, Charles Newman, Mort Dixon, Ned Washington and Ray Gilbert, the latter collaboration penned Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah from the 1947 film Song Of The South, which won Gilbert and Wrubel an Oscar for Best Song that year. A few recognizable songs from his huge collection of compositions, some that have become staples in the jazz catalog – Gone With The Wind, As You Desire Me, Music Maestro Please, I’ll Buy That Dream, Mine Alone, How Long Has This Been Going On and The Masquerade Is Over.
After a long and successful career Allie Wrubel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1970, just three years before his death on December 13, 1973 in Twentynine Palms, California.
