Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rod Mason was born September 28, 1940 in Plymouth, England and as a young man played with the local Tamar Valley Jazz Band, in which his father, Frank “Pop” Mason, had played drums. At Kelly College, in Tavistock, England he played the bugle with the cadet corps, then the valve trombone. He played this in his father’s band until the trumpet player left, whereupon he replaced him using a brass-band style cornet.
He went on to play briefly with the Cy Laurie band from 1959 to 1960 and two years later went with Monty Sunshine who left the Chris Barber band to form his own group. Sunshine hired Mason on the recommendation of Kenny Ball. In the mid-1960s after leaving Sunshine, Rod worked in the family business and played occasionally, until a winning appearance on Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks TV talent show which led to a flood of offers.
A facial paralysis forced him to use other mouthpieces, which allowed him to extend the range of his instrument. In 1965, he established his own band. From 1970 he played in the Acker Bilk Paramount Jazz Band, before he founded a band together with Ian Wheeler in 1973. He recorded numerous recordings for the Reef label. The 1980s saw Mason playing in the Dutch Swing College Band. In 1985, he founded the Hot Five band and released a number of albums for Timeless Records and regularly toured Europe.
Trumpeter, cornetist, vocalist Rod Mason who recorded thirty-two albums as a leader, played his last gig in Kaarst, Germany in December 2016 and died three weeks later on January 8, 2017 after developing peritonitis and pneumonia.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Monk Hazel was born Arthur Frank Hazel to a drummer father on August 15, 1903 in Harvey, Louisiana. Early on he played drums with Emmett Hardy, who gave him his first cornet, and then with Stalebread Lacombe. In the 1920s he worked with many bands including the Halfway House Orchestra led by Abbie Brunies, Tony Parenti with whom he recorded in 1928, and Johnny Wiggs.
From the late 1920s to the early 1930s, Hazel led his own Bienville Roof Orchestra which played atop the Bienville Hotel at Lee Circle, and made recordings in 1928 and then spent time in New York playing with Johnny Wiggs, Jack Pettis and with his own group from 1929 to 1931.
Hazel relocated to Hollywood in Los Angeles, California for a period working with Gene Austin but eventually returned to New Orleans, Louisiana performing with Joe Caprano in 1937 and the Lloyd Danton Quintet. He spent 1942-43 in the Army and then worked for a time outside of music.
During his final twenty years, Hazel was once again active in New Orleans, recording with his own band in 1945 and performing with Sharkey Bonano from 1949 to 1952, George Girard, Mike Lala, Santo Pecora and virtually every other important name in New Orleans jazz.
As a leader, Monk recorded four titles in 1928 for Brunswick Records and a full album for Southland Records in 1954; Pete Fountain and Al Hirt were among his sidemen on the latter recording.
Drummer and cornetist Monk Hazel, who occasionally took cornet and mellophone solos, died on March 5, 1968 in New Orleans.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenny Baker was born on March 1, 1921 in Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Joining a brass band, by the age of 17 he had already become a professional musician. After leaving his home town for London, he met and began performing with George Chisholm. He was first heard on record in a British public jam session in 1941 and quickly established a strong reputation in London clubs.
After serving in the Royal Air Force during WWII, the young Baker was lead trumpeter with Ted Heath’s post war orchestra, with Bakerloo Non-Stop recorded for the Decca record label in 1946. He played a tenor saxophone solo on Johnny Gray, the piece recorded by both Baker and the drummer Jack Parnell. During the 1950s, he led his own group called Baker’s Dozen and performed on the first regular jazz show, the BBC Light Programme series Let’s Settle For Music.
During this period he regularly recorded as a quartet for Parlophone, and in the Sixties and Seventies, he was on call for film and studio work. He shared top billing with comedy variety acts, continued to appear on BBC shows, and formed the Best of British Jazz show with Don Lusher and Betty Smith. He went on to play with Frank Sinatra, Petula Clark, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Tony Bennett, as well as performing on James Bond soundtracks, with The Beatles and The Muppet Show among numerous other television shows.
Trumpeter, cornetist, flugelhornist and composer Kenny Baker, who was titled three times as best trumpet player and awarded the MBE title, died in Felpham, West Sussex on December 7, 1999 after suffering from a viral infection. He was 78.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Graeme Barnard was born on November 24, 1933 in Melbourne, Australia and his parents had formed a dance band in the 1920s, his mother was the bandleader and pianist, his father on saxophone, drums and banjo. His older brother Len joined them on drums at age 11. He took trumpet lessons from age 11 and played clarinet in a local brass band before he joined the family band at 14 in 1947.
When his brother Len formed his own group, Len’s South City Stompers the next year he joined on trumpet and they made their first recording in 1949 on his 16th birthday. The following year they began a weekly radio broadcast as Len Barnard’s Dixieland Jazz Band. He played with the group until 1955 after being cheated of their takings and stranded in Tumut, Australia. Relocating to Sydney he performed with Ray Price Trio before returning to Melbourne.
In 1958 Barnard joined the Graeme Bell band for an Australian tour. He worked for Brashs from 1958 to 1962, while performing after business hours. He went back to Sydney in 1962 and as a member of Graeme Bell and His All-Stars appeared on Trad Pad, a TV special program.
He was nominated in 1996 at the ARIA Music Awards of 1996 for Best Jazz Album for Live at the Sydney Opera House, which was recorded with the Australian Jazz Allstars.
Trumpeter and cornetist Bob Barnard, who was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to music, particularly jazz, transitioned on May 7, 2022.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lasse Törnqvist was born Lars Törnqvist on November 18, 1935 in Bromma, outside Stockholm, Sweden. Between 1952 and 1957 he played traditional jazz with the Midnight Stompers. He took a music hiatus but picked up playing again in 1973 in more swing and mainstream influenced sextest and septets, like the Olle Orrjes Jazz Band and Lasse Törnqvist’s Blue Stars.
He experimented with small bands in order to achieve a more acoustic sound. During the 1980s he often played with a cornet and piano duo. In 1992 he put a trio together with guitar and bass which became the Sweet Jazz Trio.
Cornetist Lasse Törnqvist, at 98 years old, no longer plays.
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