Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clarence Profit was born on June 26, 1912 in New York City. Coming from a musical family, he began studying piano at the age of three and led a ten-piece band in New York City in his teens.
A visit to his grandparents in Antigua resulted in his staying in the Caribbean for five years. He also led a group in Bermuda. Returning to the States, Clarence led a trio. He co-composed Lullaby In Rhythm with Edgar Sampson. He was respected in his era, but after his early death he fell into obscurity. He was born, and died, in New York City.
Pianist and composer Clarence Profit, closely associated with the swing era, passed away in New York City on October 22, 1944.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chuck Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 21, 1947. He began guitar lessons at the age of 14 and by 1963, he was teaching guitar and playing in a band.
At the age of 19, he began studies with Dennis Sandole, who was notable for his association with John Coltrane, James Moody, Michael Brecker, Pat Martino and Jim Hall.
In 1969, Anderson was offered the staff guitar job at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The Latin was a popular venue before gambling came to Atlantic City. During that period, he accompanied and performed with Bobby Darin, Billy Eckstine, and Peggy Lee, playing fourteen shows a week.
By 1973 Chuck had returned to jazz and formed the Chuck Anderson Trio with Al Stauffer on bass and Ray Deeley on drums. Four years later, he was the staff guitar job at Valley Forge Music Fair in Devon, Pennsylvania.
During the years leading up to the Eighties he worked with Nancy Wilson, Michel LeGrand, and Anthony Newley. In the years that followed, he concentrated on teaching, composing, and session work.
He has written a column, The Art and Science of Jazz, for the web magazine All About Jazz. Guitarist, educator, composer, and author Chuck Anderson continues his career in music.
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Three Wishes
The answer that Billy Strayhorn gave Pannonica when she asked him what his three wishes would be, if given, was:
1. “I would wish that music would become ever more beautiful than it is, and that I would be able to listen to it forever, and write it forever.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marc Steckar was born on June 1, 1935 in Cherbourg, France. He began learning the cello from age eight, then played the trumpet. During his studies at the Paris National Conservatory, he switched to the trombone in 1953, which he studied with André Lafosse. After an interruption due to his military service in the Algerian War, he completed his training and in 1959 he received the second prize for trombone.
In the next few years he worked in the big band of Benny Bennet, in the Aimé Barelli orchestra in the Monte Carlo casinos and in Olympia where he played Marlene Dietrich and Nat King Cole, with whom he toured Europe. He played in the orchestra of Paul Mauriat accompanying Charles Aznavour, then in the big band of Daniel Janin who played behind Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Gilbert Bécaud and Sammy Davis Jr. in 1961.
Over the next few years he worked as a studio musician, among others for Michel Legrand , Vladimir Cosma and for various television shows, but also again at the Olympia for Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire. Between 1973 and 1983, Marc accompanied Claude Nougaro with Eddy Louiss and Maurice Vander before becoming a member of Martial Solal’s big band. He recorded film music with Vander.
He went on to form Steckar TUBAPACK, and the Elephant Tuba Horde Big Band. Steckar is also on albums by François Jeanneau, Illinois Jacquet and Sonny Rhodes. Tubist Marc Stekar, who played trombone, bass trombone, euphonium, and was a composer, passed away on June 27, 2015 in Bessancourt, Val-d’Oise, France.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Red Holloway was born James Wesley Holloway on May 31, 1927 in Helena, Arkansas, and started playing banjo and harmonica before switching to tenor saxophone when he was 12 years old. Graduating from DuSable High School, where he had played in the school big band with Johnny Griffin and Eugene Wright, and attended the Conservatory of Music, Chicago, Illinois.
Joining the Army when he was 19, Red became bandmaster for the U.S. Fifth Army Band, and after completing his military service returned to Chicago and played with Yusef Lateef and Dexter Gordon, among others. In 1948, he joined blues vocalist Roosevelt Sykes, and later played with other rhythm & blues musicians such as Willie Dixon, Junior Parker, and Lloyd Price.
In the 1950s, he played in the Chicago area with Billie Holiday, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Ben Webster, Jimmy Rushing, Arthur Prysock, Dakota Staton, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Wardell Gray, Sonny Rollins, Red Rodney, Lester Young, Joe Williams, Redd Foxx, B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and Aretha Franklin. During this period, he also toured with Sonny Stitt, Memphis Slim and Lionel Hampton. He became a member of the house band for Chance Records in 1952. He subsequently appeared on many recording sessions for the Chicago-based independents Parrot, United, States, and Vee-Jay.
From 1963 to 1966, he was in organist Brother Jack McDuff’s band, which also featured guitarist George Benson, who was then at the start of his career. In 1974, Holloway recorded The Latest Edition with John Mayall and toured Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. From 1977 to 1982, he worked with Sonny Stitt, recording two albums together. Following Stitt’s death, he played and recorded with Clark Terry.
Tenor saxophonist Red Holloway passed away in Morro Bay, California, aged 84 of a stroke and kidney failure on February 25, 2012, one month after Etta James, with whom he had worked extensively.
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