Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank L. Marocco was born January 2, 1931 in Joliet, Illinois but grew up in Waukegan, near Chicago, Illinois. At the age of seven years, his parents enrolled him in a six-week beginner class for learning to play the accordion. His first teacher was George Stefani, who supervised the young accordionist for nine years. Beginning with studying classical music, he soon encouraged the young musician to explore other musical genres. He went on to study piano and clarinet, as well as music theory, harmony, and composition.
At 17, Frank won the first prize in the 1948 Chicago Musicland Festival, and a guest performance with the Chicago Pops Orchestra. His success sent him on a professional music career, establishing a trio and touring the Midwestern states. In the early 1950s he married and moved to Los Angeles, California.
Creating a new band, Marocco played hotels and clubs in Las Vegas, Nevada, Lake Tahoe, Nevada and Palm Springs, California. He later began working in Hollywood, where television studios and movie production companies provided him a successful career.
In the 1960s, Frank recorded a solo album released by Verve Records, worked together with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, and performed on the world-famous album Pet Sounds. He performed on a USO tour in the Pacific, appearing onstage with Bob Hope, and also played in the Les Brown big band, during six Love Boat cruises. He performed and recorded in collaboration with hundreds of world-famous jazz musicians, classical artists and conductors during his career.
Marocco wrote and arranged music for solo, duet, and orchestra in a wide variety of musical styles, including jazz, popular standards, international, Latin, religious, and classical. He was the musical director and conductor of an annual music camp, the Frank Marocco Accordion Event, that brought together over 50 accordionists from around the U.S. and Canada.
Accordionist Frank Marocco passed away on March 3, 2012 at his home in San Fernando Valley, California from complications following hip replacement surgery. He was 81 years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Simon Brehm was born on December 31, 1921 in Sweden and learned to play the double~bass. He recorded three albums with Quincy Jones. Later in life, he became a record producer and owner of Karusell Records.
Very little is known or written about this musician, but he managed singer Lill-Babs and was the leader of the orchestra that played in the TV show Hylands hörna from 1962.
Double~bassist, composer, and record producer Simon Brehm passed away on February 11, 1967 at the age of 45
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Brian Ernest Austin Brown was born on December 29, 1933 in Melbourne, Australia and was a self-taught player and emerged in the 1950s, a leading figure in Australia. He performed as a soloist and with his own ensembles since the mid-1950s throughout Australia and in Scandinavia, United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Brunei and Germany.
In early 1956 Brown returned to Melbourne from Europe and formed the Brian Brown Quintet with drummer Stewie Speer, trumpeter Keith Hounslow, schoolboy pianist Dave Martin and bassist Barry Buckley. The new hard bop band was a regular from 1955 to 1960 at Horst Liepolt’s Jazz Centre 44 in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. They introduced bop to Melburnians, a musical style largely unheard in Australia.
He made eight albums over an 18-year period heading various groups. Touring Europe with his Australian Jazz Ensemble in 1978, Brian also led groups doing experimental and original classical pieces from 1980 to 1986.
As an educator, he founded the Improvisation Studies course at the Victorian College of the Arts, where he taught from 1978 until his retirement in 1998. He appeared at the World Saxophone Congress in Tokyo in 1988, with Tony Gould. In June 1993 he was awarded the Order of Australia for service to the performing arts.
Soprano and tenor saxophonist, flutist, synthesizer, panpiper, leather bowhorn, composer, and educator Brian Brown passed away on January 28, 2013.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mike Jackson was born on December 23, 1888 in Louisville, Kentucky. The details of his early life are not known, however, in 1921 he began composing songs for publisher Joe Davis. Soon after he became an accompanist playing piano for a number of early jazz and blues recordings, with Clara Smith, Alberta Hunter, Laura Smith, Thomas Morris, the New Orleans Blue Five, the Dixie Jazzers Washboard Band, Perry Bradford, and Buddy Christian.
He also recorded under his own name as Jackson and His Southern Stompers. With Morris, he worked in the vaudeville show The Wicked Age in 1927. He emigrated to Montreal, Canada in 1928, but returned to New York City in 1930, where he continued working as a composer.
His compositions included The Louisville Blues, written with Bob Ricketts in 1921 and recorded by W.C. Handy in 1923; Scandal Blues and Black Hearse Blues, both written in 1925; and Slender, Tender and Tall and Hey, Knock Me a Kiss, both of which were recorded by Jimmie Lunceford and Louis Jordan among others.
Pianist and composer Mike Jackson passed away on June 21, 1945 in New York City.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Lang was born on December 10, 1941 in Los Angeles, California. He obtained a bachelor of music at the University of Michigan in 1963, and studied under Leonard Stein, George Tremblay, Pearl Kaufman and Lalo Schifrin.
Well versed in various music forms, including jazz, classical, pop and R&B, he has collaborated and recorded more than two-dozen albums with Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Natalie Cole, Robbie Williams, Dusty Springfield, Solomon Burke, Tom Waits,, José Feliciano, Vince Gill, Bette Midler, Kenny Rogers, Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson, Amy Grant, Paul Anka, Melissa Manchester, Neil Diamond, Michael Bolton, Barry Manilow, Carole Bayer Sager, and Barbra Streisand.
Pianist and composer Michael Lang, who has composed more than 2000 film scores, continues to play and compose.