Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Lee, Jr. born January 4, 1941 in New Orleans, Louisiana played professionally from his early teens. While serving in the U. S. Army, he was a member in several bands. In 1969, he co-founded the New Orleans Jazz Workshop.
In 1969 Dizzy Gillespie brought Lee into his band and soon after he was working with Roy Ayers in 1971 and Sonny Rollins for three years beginning in 1972. The Rollins recordings were hard swinging but included the plethora of tempos of the Seventies.
Forming a quartet but never recording as a leader, he continued to work as a sideman. On August 4, 2021, drummer and composer David Lee, who recorded Yoshiaki Masuo, Charlie Rouse, Lonnie Liston Smith and Richard Wyands among others, transitioned at 80 years of age.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Johnny Frigo was born on December 27, 1916 in Chicago, Illinois and studied violin for three years beginning at age seven. In high school he started to play double bass in dance orchestras. In 1942 he played with Chico Marx’s orchestra and performed a comedy routine on violin with Marx on piano.
Entering the United States Coast Guard during World War II, he played in an Ellis Island band with Al Haig and Kai Winding. After his brief turn at active service near the end of the war he moved to New Jersey and from 1945 to 1947 he toured with Jimmy Dorsey’s band. He later formed the Soft Winds trio with Dorsey’s guitarist Herb Ellis and pianist Lou Carter. During this time he wrote the music and lyrics to Detour Ahead and I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out.
In 1951, returning to Chicago, Johnny primarily worked as a studio bassist and arranger. He also led the band at Mr. Kelly’s, and until 1960 he played fiddle hoedowns and novelties with the Sage Riders, WLS radio house band for the National Barn Dance. Then in 1961 WGN revived the show and he played with the Sage Riders for another fourteen years.
He went on to work with Chicago jazz vocalist Anita O’Day in live and studio recordings. In the mid-1980s Frigo largely abandoned playing bass and concentrated on violin. He performed as a jazz violinist at festivals worldwide. Frigo also was a published poet and artist and played flugelhorn. He wrote and performed the 1969 Chicago Cubs fight song Hey Hey, Holy Mackerel.
Violinist and bassist Johnny Frigo, who was also a composer, lyricist, published poet and artist, passed away of cancer on July 4, 2007 at age 90.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sven Arne Domnérus was born on December 20, 1924 in Stockholm, Sweden and began to play the clarinet at the age of 11. By the time he left school he had taken up the saxophone and turned professional. In 1949 he performed at the Paris Jazz Festival and with Charlie Parker when he was on tour in Sweden in 1950.
A few years later Arne recorded with Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, and James Moody. From the middle 1950s to the middle 1960s he was a featured soloist in the Swedish Radio Big Band. With Bengt-Arne Wallin, Rolf Ericson, and Åke Persson (the latter two were former members of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra), he participated in the Jazz Workshops organised for the Ruhrfest in Recklinghausen by Hans Gertberg from the Hamburg radio station.
He recorded several times with Quincy Jones in Sweden and is featured throughout The Midnight Sun Never Sets, composed and arranged by Jones and recorded under Jones’ direction by Harry Arnold’s orchestra in 1958. Domnérus’ playing in his early career was typical of the cool, sophisticated, technically accomplished and lyrical style of Swedish modern jazz during the 1950s.
As a leader Domnerus recorded forty~four albums and another 104 as a sideman with Alice Babs, Lars Gullin, Bengt Hallberg, Dizzy Gillespie, Thad Jones, George Russell, Toots Thielemans, Red Rodney, James Moody, Leonard Feather and Monica Zetterlund, among others too numerous to mention.
Saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Arne Domnerus, who wrote for film and television, and retired from playing due to his declining health, passed away on September 2, 2008 in his hometown.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Laird Abercrombie was born in Port Chester, New York on December 16, 1944. Growing up in the 1950s in Greenwich, Connecticut he was attracted to the rock and roll of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, and Bill Haley and the Comets. He also liked the sound of jazz guitarist Mickey Baker of the vocal duo Mickey and Silvia. He had two friends who were musicians with a large jazz collection and they listened to albums by Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis.
The first jazz guitar album he heard was by Barney Kessel, and taking guitar lessons at the age of ten, asked his teacher to show him what Kessel was playing. After high school, John went to Berklee College of Music and while there he was drawn to the music of Jim Hall, Sonny Rollins, and Wes Montgomery. He cites George Benson and Pat Martino as inspirations. His playing around Boston, Massachusetts led to his meeting the Brecker Brothers and organist Johnny Hammond Smith, who invited him to go on tour.
From Berklee in 1967 to North Texas State University to a move to New York City in 1969 where he became a popular session musician. He joined the Brecker Brothers in the jazz-rock fusion band Dreams, followed by recordings with Gato Barbieri, Barry Miles, and Gil Evans. He continued to play fusion in Billy Cobham’s band until an invitation from drummer Jack DeJohnette led to the fulfillment of Abercrombie’s desire to play in a jazz-oriented ensemble.
Around the same time, record producer Manfred Eicher, founder and president of ECM Records, invited him to record an album. He recorded his first solo album, Timeless, with DeJohnette and keyboardist Jan Hammer. who had been his roommate in the 1960s. In 1975 he formed the band Gateway with DeJohnette and bassist Dave Holland.
Between 1984 and 1990, Abercrombie experimented with a guitar synthesizer. Free jaz became a mainstay for him in the 1990s and 2000s as he formed many new associations. Drummer Adam Nussbaum, and Hammond organist Jeff Palmer became his trio and made a free-jazz album, then replaced Palmer with organist Dan Wall and released three albums between 1992 and 1997. Adding trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, violinist Mark Feldman and saxophonist Joe Lovano to the trio he recorded Open Land in 1999.).
He continued to tour and record until the end of his life. who recorded 59 as a leader, 4 with Gateway, 6 with Andy LaVerne and 93 as a sideman for the who’s who in jazz. Guitarist John Abercrombie, whose work explored jazz fusion, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz, passed away of heart failure in Cortlandt Manor, New York, at the age of 72 on August 22, 2017.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Buddy Cole was born Edwin LeMar Cole on December 15, 1916 in Irving, Illinois. He started his musical career in the theater, playing between movies and by age 19 he was recruited to be part of the Gil Evans band.
Moving to Hollywood, California in the second half of the 1930s, Buddy played in dance bands, including those led by Alvino Rey and Frankie Trumbauer. From the 1940s, his main work was as a studio musician, utilizing piano, electric organ, celeste, harpsichord and Novachord.
Cole worked with Henry Mancini, who used his Hammond organ for the soundtrack to the TV series Mr. Lucky. He also played most of the piano parts in the 1951 film Young Man with a Horn, subbing for Hoagy Carmichael, who appeared on screen. He also wrote the music for the television game show Truth or Consequences.
He performed on Bing Crosby’s hits In a Little Spanish Town and Ol’ Man River, and on the albums Some Fine Old Chestnuts and New Tricks. Buddy also played on Rosemary Clooney’s radio program and some recordings from the show were released on the album Swing Around Rosie.
Pianist, organist, orchestra leader, and composer Buddy Cole, who recorded several organ albums as a leader for Warner Brothers, Columbia, Alshi and Doric, passed away on November 5, 1964 in Hollywood, California.
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