Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harry Barris was born on November 24, 1905 in New York City to Jewish parents. Educated in Denver, Colorado. he became a professional pianist at the age of 14. He led a band that toured the Far East at the age of 17.
The same year, he played the piano and occasionally sang in the Paul Ash Orchestra, while Al Rinker and Bing Crosby became members of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra as a singing duo. However, while the duo was appearing at the vast New York Paramount in 1927, sans microphones, they could not be heard by the audience. They were promptly dropped from the bill. However, a band member who knew Barris suggested that they add him to make a trio and The Rhythm Boys was formed in April 1927.
In 1930, The Rhythm Boys left Whiteman and joined Gus Arnheim’s Cocoanut Grove Orchestra. They made one more recording together, Them There Eyes but the boys decided to quit in 1931 agoing their separate ways. Harry however, changed his mind and returned to the Cocoanut Grove to complete his contract. Joining Arnheim’s singing group The Three Ambassadors.
Barris appeared in 57 films between 1931 and 1950, usually as a band member, pianist or singer. Seven of those films had Bing Crosby as the star. In 1932, Barris signed a contract to star in six shorts for Educational Pictures.
During World War II, along with Joe E. Brown, he went overseas to entertain troops. Having a lifelong drinking problem, sustaining a fall that fractured his hip in 1961, and despite a series of operations, he developed a cancerous tumor. Vocalist, pianist, and composer Harry Barris, who was one of the earliest to utilize scat singing in recordings passed away on December 13, 1962 at the age of 57 in Burbank, California.
Share a dose of a New York City composer to inspire inquisitive minds to learn about musicians whose legacy lends their genius to the jazz catalog…
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie Mariano was born Carmine Ugo Mariano on November 12, 1923 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Italian immigrants. Growing up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, after high school, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After his discharge, he attended Schillinger House of Music, now Berklee College of Music. He was among the faculty at Berklee from 1965–1971.
Moving to Europe in 1971, he eventually settled in Köln, Germany, with his third wife, Dorothee Zippel. He played with one of the Stan Kenton big bands, Toshiko Akiyoshi, his second wife, Charles Mingus, Eberhard Weber, the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, Embryo and numerous other notable bands and musicians.
He was known for his use of the nadaswaram, a classical wind instrument from Tamil Nadu. He recorded thirteen albums as a leader and another sixty records as a sideman, working with Shelly Manne, Eberhard Weber, Manny Albam, Max Bennett, Chet Baker, Philip Catherine, Serge Chaloff, Peggy Connelly, Herb Ellis, Maynard Ferguson, Michael Gibbs, John Graas, George Gruntz, Chico Hamilton, Bill Harris, Bill Holman, Jackie and Roy, Elvin Jones, Quincy Jones, Mel Lewis, Arif Mardin, Toshiko Mariano, Vince Mendoza, Modern Jazz Quartet, Mike Nock, Nat Pierce, Herb Pomeroy, Irene Reid, Johnny Richards, Jimmy Ricks, Shorty Rogers, Frank Rosolino, Sal Salvador, Fredy Studer, Harvie Swartz, McCoy Tyner, Sadao Watanabe, Stu Williamson.
Alto and soprano saxophonist Carmine Mariano passed away from cancer on June 16, 2009
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paul Bley was born Hyman Paul Bley on November 10, 1932 in Montreal, Quebec. His adoptive parents were Betty Marcovitch and Joe Bley, who owned an embroidery factory. When he was five years old he studied violin, but by seven he took up the piano. He received a junior diploma from the McGill Conservatory in Montreal when he was 11 and at thirteen he formed a band which played at summer resorts in Ste. Agathe, Quebec. His teenage years saw him he played with touring American bands, including Al Cowan’s Tramp Band. In 1949 at the start of his high school senior year, Oscar Peterson asked him to fulfill his contract at the Alberta Lounge in Montreal. The next year he left Montreal for New York City and Juilliard.
The Fifties saw Paul returning to Montreal, establishing the Jazz Workshop and inviting Charlie Parker, he played and recorded with him. Returning to New York City he hired Jackie McLean, Al Levitt, and Doug Watkins to play an extended gig at the Copa City on Long Island. He did a series of trio recordings with Al Levitt and Peter Ind, toured as Lester Young and the Paul Bley Trio, and performed with tenor saxophonist Ben Webster at that time. He then conducted for bassist Charles Mingus on the Charles Mingus and His Orchestra album and in 1953, Mingus produced the Introducing Paul Bley album for his label, Debut Records with Mingus on bass and drummer Art Blakey. A 1954 call from Chet Baker put him with the quintet at Jazz City in Hollywood, California that led to a tour with singer Dakota Staton.
Staying in Los Angeles he evolved his trio into a quintet with young avant~garde musicians Dave Pike, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. Through the Sixties, he worked with Jimmy Giuffre, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Bill Dixon, Roswell Rudd, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Carla Bley, Michael Mantler, Sun Ra, and others. The Seventies had him and Carol Goss founding the production company Improvising Artists. The label issued Jaco, the debut recording of Pat Metheny on electric guitar and Jaco Pastorius on electric bass, with Bley on electric piano and Bruce Ditmas on drums. The label would release IAI records and videos of Jimmy Giuffre, Lee Konitz, Dave Holland, Marion Brown, Gunter Hampel, Lester Bowie, Steve Lacy, Ran Blake, Perry Robinson, Naná Vasconcelos, John Gilmore, two solo piano records by Sun Ra, and others. Bley and Goss are credited in a Billboard cover story with the first commercial music video.
Through the Eighties and Nineties, he continued to record, tour prolifically through Europe, Japan, South America, and the United States. in 1993 a relative from the New York branch of the Bley family walked into the Sweet Basil jazz club in New York City and informed him that his father was actually his biological parent. In the new millennium, he became a part-time faculty member of the New England Music Conservatory.
His last public performances were in 2010 playing a solo piano concert at the La Villette Jazz Festival in Paris, followed by a duo with Charlie Haden at BlueNote in New York City during a full moon. Pianist Paul Bley passed away of natural causes on January 3, 2016, at home in Stuart, Florida, at the age of 83.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dara Tucker was born on November 8th in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the third of seven children to music minister and gospel recording artist, Doyle Tucker, and singer Lynda Tucker. Starting out singing harmony at the age of 4 with her brothers and sisters, she began playing the piano at age 8, and traveled the country singing with her family for most of her childhood. The family spent time in Spokane, Washington; Detroit, Michigan; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Pasadena, California; and Baltimore, Maryland. Along with her siblings, they were known as The Tuckers bringing forth their rich harmonies and seamless blend.
Receiving her degree in International Business and German Studies, after graduating, Tucker worked for a few years in the field of International Business. She then moved to Interlaken, Switzerland to study German while aupairing. It was while living in Switzerland in 2003 she began songwriting, and the next year moved to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter.
She recorded her debut album All Right Now in 2009 featuring Great American Songbook standards. Two years later she dropped her second album Soul Said Yes blending r&b, jazz, and gospel and featured seven-string guitarist, Charlie Hunter.
A third release, The Sun Season in 2014 was recorded in Astoria, Queens, New York included ten originals penned by Dara. The session had guitarist Peter Bernstein, pianist Helen Sung, drummer Donald Edwards, John Ellis on saxophone, Alan Ferber on trombone, and bassist Greg Bryant. She would go on to record another studio album and live date.
Vocalist Dara Tucker, named Jazz Vocalist of the Year at the 2016 and 2017 Nashville Industry Music Awards, and cites her influences including her parents as Mel Tormé, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, and Nancy Wilson, continues to compose, perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeff Lorber was born November 4, 1952 into a Jewish family in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania. He started to play the piano when he was four years old and after playing in a number of R&B bands as a teen, he attended Berklee College of Music, where he developed his love for jazz. There he met and played alongside guitarist John Scofield and for several years he studied chemistry at Boston University.
Moving to Vancouver, Washington in 1972, his first group, The Jeff Lorber Fusion, released their self-titled debut album in 1977 on Inner City Records. Recording five albums under his name, these early sessions showcased a funky jazz fusion sound, and his 1980 album, Wizard Island, introduced saxophonist Kenny G. In 1982, Lorber recorded his first solo album, It’s a Fact, which explored his R&B roots with a smoother, more synthesizer-heavy sound along with vocals.
Many of his songs have appeared on The Weather Channel segments as well as their compilation albums. He has had six Grammy Award nominations and his Prototype album won for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2018. Keyboardist, composer and record producer Jeff Lorber continues to produce, compose and perform.
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