Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Prince Lasha (pronounced “La-shay“) was born William B. Lawsha on September 10, 1929 in Fort Worth, Texas. He came of age studying and performing alongside fellow I.M. Terrell High School students John Carter, Ornette Coleman, King Curtis, Charles Moffett and Dewey Redman.
Lasha moved to California during the 1950s. In the 1960s, Prince Lasha was active in the burgeoning free jazz movement, of which his Fort Worth cohort Ornette Coleman was a pioneer. Lasha worked closely with saxophonist Sonny Simmons, with whom he recorded two albums, The Cry and Firebirds no the Contemporary label, the latter receiving five stars and an AMG Albumpick at Allmusic.
Lasha worked as a sideman appearing on recordings with Eric Dolphy, Elvin Jones/Jimmy Garrison Sextet featuring McCoy Tyner, and with Michael White. In the 1970s, Lasha and Simmons made additional recordings under the name Firebirds. In 2005, Lasha recorded the album The Mystery of Prince Lasha with the Odean Pope Trio.
Saxophonist, flautist and clarinetist Prince Lasha died on December 12, 2008, in Oakland, California. He left a small legacy of six recordings as a leader marking his place in jazz history.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bennie Maupin was born on August 29, 1940 in Detroit, Michigan and undertook extensive instrumental studies, both privately and at the Detroit Institute of Musical Art from age 14 until 1962. During this period his influences were Yusef Lateef, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. By 1966 he was working with Roy Haynes followed by a two-year tenure with Horace Silver in ’68.
Maupin joined Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi sextet and his Headhunters band, and then joined Miles Davis for the recording of Bitches Brew. He has also performed on several Meat Beat Manifesto albums.
Bennie is noted for having a harmonically advanced, “out” improvisation style, and as a composer, he has the ability to create brief melodies and song forms that create vast landscapes for improvisation.
Multireedist Bennie Maupin was also a member of the group “Almanac” with Cecil McBee, has recorded a half dozen albums as a leader and another two-dozen as a sideman. He has worked with the likes of Lee Morgan, Eddie Henderson, Marion Brown, John Beasley, Mike Clark, Jack DeJohnette, Darek Oles, Lonnie Smith, McCoy Tyner and Lenny White. He appears in the 2016 biopic I Called Him Morgan about trumpeter Lee Morgan and continues to pursue his career in music from jazz to rock to abstraction.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Shu was born on August 18, 1918 in New York City. He learned violin and guitar as a child before picking up saxophone as a teenager. His first professional gigs were as a harmonica-playing ventriloquist. He played in military bands while serving in the Army from 1942 to 1945.
Following his discharge he played with Tadd Dameron in 1947, George Shearing, Johnny Bothwell, Buddy Rich, Les Elgart and Lionel Hampton from 1949–1950. He would play with Charlie Barnet, Chubby Jackson and Gene Krupa through the end of the decade.
In the 1960s Shu moved to Florida, playing locally as well as clarinet with Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars, as well as Hampton and Krupa again. He would freelance around New York City, the Virgin Islands and Florida. Though he only did a few sessions as a leader in 1949, 1954 and 1955, he also recorded frequently with Gene Krupa.
Though he never gained much fame, Eddie Shu, a multi-talented swing and jazz saxophonist, a valued sideman skilled on reeds and brass instruments, passed away on July 4, 1986 in Tampa, Florida.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Walter Blanding Jr. was born on August 14, 1971 in Cleveland, Ohio to a musical family and began playing the saxophone at age six. In 1981, he moved with his family to New York City, and by age 16, he was performing regularly with his parents at the Village Gate.
Blanding attended LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and continued his studies at the New School for Social Research. Living in Israel for 4 years he had a major impact on the music scene, inviting great artists such as Louis Hayes, Eric Reed and others to perform. He also taught in several Israeli schools and toured the country with his ensemble.
Walter’s first recording, Tough Young Tenors, was acclaimed as one of the best jazz albums of 1991. He has performed or recorded with numerous musicians, such as Cab Calloway, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Marcus Roberts, Illinois Jacquet, Eric Reed and Roy Hargrove among others. His latest release, The Olive Tree, features fellow members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Clarinetist, tenor and soprano saxophonist Walter Blanding Jr. currently performs as a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Spaulding was born July 30, 1937 in Indianapolis, Indiana and started playing bugle while in grade school. He later learned to play trumpet and saxophone and flute. While in high school he studied clarinet and made his professional debut around his hometown in a rhythm and blues band.
After a three-year enlistment in the Army he settled to Chicago in 1957 leading his own groups. It was during this period he joined the Sun Ra Arkestra, making several recordings and remaining through 1959, while furthering his studies of flute at the Chicago Cosmopolitan School of Music. Spaulding subsequently freelanced as a studio musician and occasionally led his own groups before returning to Indianapolis in 1961.
Relocating to New York City in 1963, he recorded extensively for Blue Note Records as a sideman, and led several sessions as a leader for Storyville, Muse, 32 and High Note. He was also a member of the World Saxophone Quartet and recorded with Grant Green, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Lee Morgan, David Murray, Duke Pearson, Sam Rivers, Pharoah Sanders, Wayne Shorter, Stanley Turrentine, Larry Young and others.
As an educator he taught flute as an adjunct professor at Livingston College in New Jersey. Alto saxophonist James Spaulding continues to perform and record.