Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Theodore McCord was born May 17, 1907 in Birmingham, Alabama and was the twin brother of Castor McCord, also a reedist. While both brothers played tenor saxophone and clarinet, in addition Ted played alto saxophone.
As a student at Wilberforce University in the 1920s, he played in a student group led by Horace Henderson. He also played in Edgar Hayes’s group, the Blue Grass Buddies, and the McKinney’s Cotton Pickers and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band.
He can be heard playing on their sessions with Louis Armstrong. Other credits include recordings with King Carter and the singer Ollie Shepard.
Roping out of music in the Forties, saxophonist Ted McCord, who was principally active in the 1920s and 1930s, his date and place of his death is unknown.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Matt Lavelle was born on April 11, 1970 in Paterson, New Jersey and began his music career with Hildred Humphries, a swing era veteran who played with Count Basie and Billie Holiday.
Playing in ensembles led by Sabir Mateen since 2002, three years later Matt began study with Ornette Coleman. He has been a member of the Bern Nix Quartet since 2010 and recorded with Giuseppi Logan the same year.
In 2011 he created the 12 Houses Orchestra. Lavelle is also a visual artist inspired by his Grandfather Fritz Kluber. He is author of the Substack No Sound Left Behind. Matt published a book titled New York City Subway Drama and Beyond, in 2011. In 2013 he published a short story titled The Jazz Musician’s Tarot Deck.
He has recorded nineteen albums as a leader, and another forty-five as a sideman with Nix and Logan as well as Sumari, Eye Contact, Daniel Carter, Bern Nix, Giuseppi Logan, Matana Roberts, William Hooker, Francois Grillot, Steve Swell, Sabir Mateen, Ras Moshe, Assif Tsahar, William Parker, Charles Waters, Barry Chabala, Earth People, Allen Lowe, D3, Julie Lyon, Tom Cabrera, The Cooperative Sound, Stars Like Fleas, Eric Plaks, and Pete Dennis.
Trumpeter Matt Lavelle, who also plays flugelhorn, alto and bass clarinet, continues to perform, record and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harvey Wainapel was born in Ellenville, New York on March 31, 1951. Growing up in the small town in the Catskills, he started his musical journey on clarinet at the age of eight. By high school he discovered jazz by playing along with tunes on New York City radio stations. Longing to play saxophone he didn’t get his first horn, an alto, until his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania. Working at the college radio station, he discovered the music of Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane and Joe Henderson.
Initially intending to follow the family tradition of pursuing a career in medicine or science, he ended up taking the plunge into music at Berklee in 1971. It was a heady era, and Wainapel played with fellow students, guitarist John Scofield, pianist Kenny Werner, trumpeter Claudio Roditi, and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano.
During his Boston years Harvey recorded and performed in Carnegie Hall with vibraphonist Gary Burton. After two years at Berklee he toured Tunisia with drummer Jamey Haddad, and made the trip to North Africa. Settling in Amsterdam, Netherlands he made a living before moving to Frankfurt, Germany with the HR Radio Big Band.
By 1979 he returned stateside, landing in New York City, and became enamored with Brazilian music. He quickly landed a gig playing with Thiago de Melo, alongside drummer Duduka da Fonseca, trumpeter Roditi and pianist Marcos Silva, the latter turning Wainapel on to other Brazilian artists. Not cut out for the city, he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, after a year on the road with Ray Charles. He became one of the most in-de-mand players in the region while keeping his European presence. Back at home, Wainapel can often be found playing Brazilian music, performing with Rio-born vocal improviser Claudia Villela.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Harvey Wainapel, who debuted as a leader with 1994’s At Home/On the Road, leads his own post-bop combos, freelances extensively, and performs with Beth Custer’s Clarinet Thing.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Andrew Morgan was born on March 13, 1901 in Pensacola, Florida. He played clarinet with the Imperial Band in the mid-1920s and then joined his brother Isaiah Morgan’s band in 1925. Sam Morgan led this ensemble for its recordings in 1927.
Heading to New Orleans, Louisian he played in the late 1920s and 1930s with Kid Howard, Kid Rena, and Kid Thomas Valentine. In the 1940s he and Isaiah played together again in Biloxi, Mississippi, then moved back to New Orleans to play with Alphonse Picou, Kid Rena again, Herb Morand from 1946 to 1952 and Kid Clayton from 1952.
He played with Percy Humphrey in 1953 and with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band and led the group after 1964. From 1958 he played Sweet Emma Barrett, Kid Howard again, Alvin Alcorn, Onward Brass Band, Eureka Brass Band, and Captain John Handy.
Clarinetist and saxophonist Andrew Morgan, who recorded once as a leader for his 1969 album Down By the Riverside, died in New Orleans, Louisiana at the age of 71 on September 19, 1972.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Wasserman was born on March 5, 1923 in Smackover, Arkansas. Growing up he had played the saxophone with many black kids in the neighborhood. After his father died, he moved with his mother to Tyler, Texas and it’s where he fell in love with jazz. His first paid job was in a dance band at age 14.
At the onset of World War II in 1941, Wasserman attended New York’s Juilliard School for a couple of years but he was soon drafted and wasn’t discharged until 1946. He returned to Juilliard to complete his studies and graduated in 1948, and that’s when he started playing with Benny Goodman. In addition to playing with Goodman, he was in big-band live and studio recordings led by Artie Shaw, Manny Albam, Stan Kenton, Louie Bellson and Chico O’Farrell, with whom he co-led a big band in 1953.
By 1955, big band work was beginning to dry up on the East Coast was starting to dry up. On the request of an agent O’Farrell and Wasserman formed a small group to play Latin music in Miami Beach, Florida. Not a good experience but Eddie’s late-1950s quartet recordings with Gene Krupa were great recordings.
Given that the youth-culture explosion in 1966 was changing the face of music, jazz was no longer an ideal way for him to earn a living. So giving up the road and having a degree in education, he became an assistant director of the concert band at Clifton High School in New Jersey. He continued to play club dates and find work in Broadway pit bands.
Saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist Eddie Wasserman died after suffering a heart attack on May 27, 1992. He was 69.
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