Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Zurke came into the world as Boguslaw Albert Zukowski on January 7, 1912 in Hamtramck, Michigan. By the age of 16 he was already using the name Bob Zurke professionally when he first recorded with a group led by pioneering female jazz bassist Thelma Terry. At that time, Zurke also began to work as a copyist for the Detroit-based booking agency run by Jean Goldkette.
Through the end of 1936, he worked in various Detroit, Michigan clubs, mostly as a band pianist, but he occasionally went on tour with other groups. During this period he developed a long friendship with pianist Marvin Ash, who would later go on to record some of Zurke’s compositions.
1937 saw Bob was hired by bandleader Bob Crosby to fill in for Joe Sullivan, then ailing with tuberculosis and it was here that he gained notice, contributing arrangements to the band’s book and as a featured soloist.
As an arranger his arrangement of Meade Lux Lewis’ Honky Tonk Train Blues, became a hit. In 1938 he was named the winner in the piano category in the DownBeat Reader’s Poll. By 1939 Sullivan was back with the Bob Crosby Orchestra and Zurke subsequently worked with the William Morris Agency to form his own band. They debuted at an RCA Victor recording session that same year as Bob Zurke and his Delta Rhythm Orchestra. His alcohol dependency, alleged drug use and unreliability and volatility led to the group disbanding.
After a period of wandering from job to job Zurke settled in Los Angeles, California in mid-1942 and began an engagement at the Hangover Club in Los Angeles that he held until the end of his days. In 1943, he made one final recording, synchronizing an original piano part to the Walter Lantz cartoon Jungle Jive (in the Swing Symphony series), one of his most difficult and challenging solos.
He published two folios of jazz piano solos and several sheet music editions of single pieces; in addition to that, 14 original compositions from Zurke are known to exist.
Pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader Bob Zurke, who was considered one of the finest boogie~woogie pianists of the time, collapsed at the Hangover Club and was taken to the hospital where he transitioned on February 16, 1944 from complications of pneumonia, aggravated by acute alcohol poisoning. He was 32.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Doug Hammond was born December 26, 1942 in Tampa, Florida. His first major release was Reflections in the Sea of Nurnen on Tribe Records in 1975.
He has worked with musicians including Earl Hooker, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Sammy Price, Donald Byrd, Wolfgang Dauner, Ornette Coleman, Steve Coleman, Nina Simone, Betty Carter, Marion Williams, Paquito D’Rivera, Arnett Cobb, James Blood Ulmer and Arthur Blythe.
In 2010 Hammond wrote and conducted Acknowledgement Suite with Dwight Adams, Jean Toussaint, Roman Filiú, Howard Curtis, Wendell Harrison, Dick Griffin, Stéphane Payen, Kirk Lightsey and Arron James.
As an educator Doug was a professor at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, Austria. His work has been filmed in a documentary Sparkle of Inspiration by the Austrian director Dieter Strauch.
Drummer, composer, poet, producer, and professor Doug Hammond, who plays in the free funk/avant-garde jazz genres, lives and continues to work in Linz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Matty Malneck born Matthew Michael Malneck on December 9, 1903 in Newark, New Jersey and his career as a violinist began when he was age 16. He was a member of the Paul Whiteman orchestra from 1926 to 1937. During the same period he recorded with Mildred Bailey, Annette Hanshaw, Frank Signorelli, and Frankie Trumbauer.
He led a big band that recorded for Brunswick, Columbia, and Decca. His orchestra provided music for The Charlotte Greenwood Show on radio in the mid-1940s and Campana Serenade in 1942–1943. His group played in the film St. Louis Blues in 1939 and You’re in the Army Now in 1941. At this point in his career he changed the group’s name to Matty Malneck and His St. Louis Blues Orchestra.
Malneck’s credits as a songwriter and composed hit songs such as Eeny Meeny Miney Mo and Goody Goody, both with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, I’ll Never Be The Same, with music by Malneck & Frank Signorelli, lyrics by Gus Kahn, and I’m Thru With Love, music by Malneck & Fud Livingston, lyrics by Kahn.
Violinist, songwriter, and arranger Matty Malneck transitioned on February 25, 1981.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mathias Rüegg was born on December 8, 1952 in Zurich, Switzerland and began playing jazz in secondary school. Trained as a schoolteacher, he taught for a while in special-needs schools. From 1973 to 1975 he attended the Musikhochschule in Graz, Austria, studying classical composition and jazz piano. While in Vienna, Austria he performed in a nightclub as a solo jazz pianist, joined later by saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig. The duo formed the core of an ensemble that in 1977 became the Vienna Art Orchestra (VAO).
His distinctive, often humorous compositions have drawn on a range of influences, from traditional folk music to classics. He has also led the VAO to explore the big band repertory of American jazz composers such as Duke Ellington. Besides the traditional big-band complement, his orchestrations have prominently featured such instruments as the tuba, piccolo, bass clarinet, alphorn, exotic percussion, and wordless vocals. Beyond jazz, Mathias has composed for big bands, and classical orchestras, as well as theatre music, film music, soloist and chamber orchestra.
Rüegg has conducted workshops, worked as artistic director for music festivals, and headed multimedia and music-related projects. Rüegg founded the Porgy & Bess music club in Vienna and the Hans Koller Prize for Austrian jazz.
Composer, bandleader and educator Mathias Rüegg continues to compose and direct orchestras.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill Reichenbach was born William Frank Reichenbach Jr. on November 30, 1949 in Takoma Park, Maryland. He began playing in high school for bands in the Washington, D.C. area and also sat in with his father’s group, playing with Milt Jackson, Zoot Sims, and others.
He went to Rochester, New York to study at the Eastman School of Music with the legendary teacher Emory Remington and after graduating joined the Buddy Rich band. He would go on to work in the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band in Los Angeles, California in the mid/late 1970s. After that move he became known for music for television and film.[2]
He played trombone on The Wiz and, with the Seawind Horns including Jerry Hey on Michael Jackson’s albums Off the Wall, Thriller, and HIStory. He was a composer for Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
He recorded a solo album, Special Edition, where he is featured on bass trombone as well as tenor. Trombonist, euphoniumist, composer and session musician Bill Reichenbach, who has collaborated on eighty-six albums with artists from Al Jarreau and George Benson to Barbra Streisand, Patti Austin and Bette Midler to Christopher Cross and Selena, continues his career in television, films, cartoons, and commercials.
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