Daily Dose Of Jazz…

John Russell Parnell was born on August 6, 1923 in Paddington, London, England and raised in Wembley. The only son of vaudevillians, his father a ventriloquist, his mother, a gifted classical pianist, worked as her husband’s accompanist. He toured with his parents as a very young child and standing in the wings enthralled by the big bands that were often top of the bill in the late 1920s. He started piano lessons as a four-year-old and could pick up tunes easily. Sent away to boarding school from the age of six, he began to take an interest in drums, and this soon became a consuming passion.

Not much interested in academic study, Parnell bought all the jazz records he could, starting with Duke Ellington and moving on to the more informal Chicago school epitomised by trumpeter Muggsy Spanier. Armed with a Premier drum kit purchased by his mother from the window-cleaner for £15 and following six lessons from Max Abrams, at 15 he ventured north to Scarborough to start his professional career playing for the summer season at the town’s theatre.

During his military service in the 1940s he became a member of Buddy Featherstonhaugh’s Radio Rhythm Club Sextet and played drums with Vic Lewis and other servicemen who were keen on jazz. From 1944 to 1946 he recorded with the Lewis-Parnell Jazzmen’s version of Ugly Child.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Parnell was voted best drummer in the Melody Maker poll for seven years in succession. He composed many television themes, including Love Story, Father Brown, The Golden Shot and Family Fortunes. He was a regular judge on the ATV talent show New Faces and the musical director for The Benny Hill Show.

He was appointed as the musical director for ATV in 1956, a post he held until 1981, and was the conductor for The Muppet Show orchestra for the series’ entire run. Jack composed the score theme for ITC Entertainment. Throughout the 1960s, Parnell directed the pit orchestra for Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

In the 1970s, he co-founded the group The Best of British Jazz with Kenny Baker, Don Lusher, Betty Smith, Tony Lee, and Tony Archer, which performed until 1985. From 1991 on Parnell was part of the Norfolk-based Mike Capocci Trio who backed saxophonists Johnny Griffin, Ronnie Ross, and Kathy Stobart. In 1994, he took over as the leader of the London Big Band.

Drummer and musical director Jack Parnell, whose uncle was the theatrical impresario Val Parnell, transitioned from the effects of cancer at 87 on August 8, 2010 in Southwold, Suffolk, England.

SUITE TABU 200

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Michael Abene ( was born July 2, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up in a musical family he was influenced and inspired by his father, grandfather, and aunt who were musicians. He studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music

His reputation for accompanying singers and for arranging music led Michael to accompany Susannah McCorkle, Julius La Rosa, and others. His debut album was a solo piano project recorded in 1984 and released in 1986 titled You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.

He recorded with Maynard Ferguson, Dizzy Gillespie, Cal Tjader during the Sixties and Urbie Green in the Seventies. Abene co-produced the album Avant Gershwin, which won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2007.

Pianist Michael Abene continues to perform, produce and conduct.

GRIOTS GALLERY

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Thore Swanerud was born June 18, 1919 in Stockholm, Sweden. He started out his professional career playing extensively with major Swedish dance bands in the 1940s, such as those of Simon Brehm, Miff Görling, and Stan Hasselgård.

In 1949-1951 Thore led his own six-piece ensemble, then led smaller groups in the 1950s and 1960s. His associations include work with Ernestine Anderson and James Moody.

He is best remembered for an eight-bar improvised solo he made during a 1949 recording of I’m In The Mood For Love, in a quintet headed by Moody while touring Sweden. Eddie Jefferson created the 1952 song Moody’s Mood For Love in vocalese style by adapting lyrics to Moody’s song. The song later became a jazz standard, covered by many singers.

Pianist, vibraphonist, arranger, conductor, and composer Thore Swanerud, who scored three films, appeared in two and recorded five albums and five singles, transitioned in Stockholm on December 8, 1988.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Claus Ogerman, born Klaus Ogermann on April 29, 1930 in Ratibor (Racibórz), Upper Silesia, Germany is now part of Poland. He began his career with the piano but became one of the most prolific arrangers of the  20th century.

In the 1950s, Ogerman worked in Germany as an arranger-pianist with Kurt Edelhagen, saxophonist and bandleader Max Greger, and Delle Haensch. He also worked as a part-time vocalist and recorded several 45 rpm singles under the pen name of Tom Collins, duetting with Hannelore Cremer. He also recorded a solo vocal with the Delle Haensch Jump Combo.

Moving to the United States in 1959, Claus joined producer Creed Taylor at Verve Records, working on recordings with many artists. During this time he also arranged many pop hits, and in 1967 joined Creed Taylor on the A&M/CTi label. Ogerman charted under his own name in 1965 with the RCA single Watusi Trumpets.

In 1980 Ogerman won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement for Soulful Strut and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists for Quiet Nights. He composed music for seventeen movies, recorded fifteen albums, and released a compilation in 2002.

He arranged and conducted an impressive 58 albums with George Benson, Solomon Burke, Donald Byrd, Betty Carter, Sammy Davis Jr., Bill Evans, Connie Francis, Michael Franks, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto, João Donato, Lesley Gore, Stephane Grappelli, Al Hirt, Billie Holiday, Johnny Hodges, Freddie Hubbard, Willis Jackson, Cal Tjader, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Dr. John, Wynton Kelly, Ben E. King, Diana Krall, Wes Montgomery, Danilo Perez, Oscar Peterson, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Smith, Barbra Streisand, Cal Tjader, Mel Tormé, Stanley Turrentine, and Kai Winding.

Having worked in the jazz, top 40, rock, pop, R&B, soul, easy listening, Broadway and classical music fields, it has never been determined the exact number of recording artists for whom he has either arranged or conducted during his career. Arranger, conductor, and composer Claus Ogerman,transitioned on March 8, 2016


ROBYN B. NASH

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Hymie Schertzer was born Herman Schertzer on April 22, 1909 in New York City, New York and began playing violin when he was nine years old. He picked up the saxophone when he was a teenager and went on to work as a sideman for Gene Kardos at the club Birdland, then joined Benny Goodman’s band, where he was the lead saxophonist until 1938, though he recorded with Goodman intermittently until the mid-1940s.

Between 1938 and 1940 Hymie was in Tommy Dorsey’s band, and recorded in the late 1930s with Bunny Berigan and Lionel Hampton. He worked with Billie Holiday in 1941 and again in 1944, then became a house musician for NBC radio and television.

Working as a session player for studio recordings Schertzer was behind Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Sy Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Artie Shaw during the years 1947-1953. He continued working with Goodman live, on television, and on record from 1951 until 1969.

Saxophonist and conductor Hymie Schertzer, who was a member of the Tonight Show Band during its Johnny Carson era, transitioned in New York City, on March 22, 1977 at the age of 67.



ROBYN B. NASH

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