Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe “Fox” Smith was born Joseph Emory Smith on June 28, 1902 in Ripley, Ohio into a family of musicians. His father was a bandleader and his six brothers played trumpet or trombone.
Known throughout his childhood as “Toots”, he originally started as a drummer but was convinced by Ethel Waters that he was a far better trumpeter. By the time he reached New York in 1920, he had his own style, which achieved “the vocalized sound, the blues spirit, and the swing.
In 1921, Smith joined the Black Swan Jazz Masters in Chicago, Illinois directed at the time by Fletcher Henderson. He went on to work with the Jazz Hounds, the Broadway Syncopators, and finally with McKinney’s Cotton Pickers throughout the 1920s. He became famous from his work accompanying Bessie Smith, recording over 30 records. Some of the other artists he worked with include Billy Paige, Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, and Allie Ross.
Trumpeter and cornetist Joe “Fox” Smith passed away from complications related to tuberculosis on December 2, 1937 in a Central Islip, New York asylum.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paul Mares was born on June 15, 1900 in New Orleans, Louisiana and was self-taught on the cornet and trumpet and picked up his early experience laying the riverboat Capitol playing with the Tom Brown Band. Leaving his hometown in 1919 he moved to Chicago, Illinois and worked with Ragbaby Stevens before freelancing around the city.
In 1921 Paul formed the Friars Society Orchestra, a group that prominently featured trombonist George Brunies and clarinetist Leon Rappolo. From 1922-23, the band recorded for Gennett Records and became one of the best-regarded bands in the city. The band, which broke up in 1924, included up-and-coming jazz musicians, including the members of the Austin High School Gang and Bix Beiderbecke.
Mares who was influenced by King Oliver, played in New York for a short time, went back to New Orleans the following year and led a couple more sessions. In 1934, a move to Chicago the following year had him making a brief comeback and leading a recording session that resulted in four titles before he retired again.
By 1935 Mares he was playing trumpet and fronting a recording session with his band called Paul Mares and his Friars Society Orchestra. The name referred to the Friar’s Inn club where the Rhythm Kings had first played in Chicago. The 1935 band included the white New Orleanian and N.O.R.K. veteran Santo Pecora on trombone, the black New Orleanian Omar Simeon on clarinet and the Chicagoan altoist Boyce Brown, as well as George Wettling on drums, pianist Jess Stacey, bassist Pat Pattison, and guitarist Marvin Saxbe.
He then largely retired from playing to work in the family fur business, and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings passed into history. He ran a barbeque restaurant, did defense plant work during World War II, and returned to music in 1945, leading a final band from 1945-48 that unfortunately never recorded. Cornetist and trumpeter Paul Mares passed away on August 18, 1949 in Chicago.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Digby Fairweather was born Richard John Charles Fairweather in Rochford, Essex, England on April 25, 1946. Before becoming a professional musician, he was a librarian, which embarked him on a lifetime interest in jazz bibliography and archiving.
In 1971 he led his first band, Dig’s Half Dozen, and recorded in 1973 with Alex Welsh. Four years later he was a member of the band Velvet with Ike Isaacs, Len Skeat, and Denny Wright, then a member of the Midnite Follies Orchestra and the Pizza Express All-Stars.
The early 1980s saw Fairweather starting a band that performed music by Nat Gonella. He worked as a sideman for George Chisholm, Alex Welsh, Tiny Winters, and Brian Priestley. Through the 1980s and ’90s he led the Jazz Superkings, the Great British Jazz Band, and the Half Dozen.
From 1992 to 1998 he pursued a parallel career as a broadcaster on BBC Radio and Jazz FM, occasionally deputizing Humphrey Lyttelton on his show Best of Jazz and successively presenting Jazz Parade and Jazz Notes. He was also part of the Salute to Satchmo.
Fairweather and Stan Barker started the Jazz College charity to introduce improvisation in schools. He established the Association of British Jazz Musicians and the National Jazz Foundation Archive. He wrote Jazz: The Essential Companion in 1987 with Brian Priestly and Ian Carr. In 2000 it was renamed The Rough Guide to Jazz.
Digby’s Half Dozen toured and recorded with singer George Melly, and in the later years of his career from 2003 to 2007. Apart from his playing and group leading, Fairweather wrote the book How to Play Trumpet. In 2016, founded The Jazz Centre (UK), a charity whose aim is to promote, preserve and celebrate the culture of jazz in all its forms.
Cornetist, author, and broadcaster Digby Fairweather, who has recorded nineteen albums as a leader, published four books and has received several awards for jazz, continues his career as a musician.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Abbie Brunies was born Albert Brunies on January 19, 1900 into a famous New Orleans, Louisiana family, which counted among its members George Brunies and Merritt Brunies.
Brunies was the leader of the Halfway House Orchestra from 1919 to about 1927, playing at the Halfway House club in New Orleans. This ensemble recorded for Okeh Records in 1925. Among the musicians who played in this group were New Orleans Rhythm Kings members Charlie Cordella, Mickey Marcour, Leon Rappolo, Sidney Arodin, Bill Eastwood, Joe Loyacano and Leo Adde.
>He played in New Orleans into the mid-1940s, after which time he moved to Biloxi, Mississippi. There he played with Merritt in the Brunie Brothers Dixieland Jazz Band. This ensemble recorded sparsely. Cornetist Abbie Brunies passed away in Biloxi on October 2, 1978.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Olu Dara was born Charles Jones III on January 12, 1941 in Natchez, Mississippi. After moving to New York City In 1963, he changed his name to Olu Dara, which means “God Is Good” in the Yoruba language. In the Seventies and Eighties, he played alongside David Murray, Henry Threadgill, Hamiet Bluiett, Don Pullen, Charles Brackeen, James Blood Ulmer, and Cassandra Wilson. He formed two bands, the Okra Orchestra and the Natchezsippi Dance Band.
His first album, In the World: From Natchez to New York, released in 1998, revealed another aspect of his musical personality: the leader and singer of a band immersed in African-American tradition, playing an eclectic mix of blues, jazz, and storytelling, with tinges of funk, African popular music, and reggae. His second album Neighborhoods, with guest appearances by Dr. John and Cassandra Wilson, followed in a similar vein.
Dara played on the 1994 album Illmatic, on the song Dance, and he sang on the 2004 song Bridging the Gap, all by his son, rapper Nas. Besides recording two albums as a leader, cornetist, guitarist and singer Olu Dara has recorded fifty-four as a sideman with the likes of Doug Carn, Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, Nona Hendryx, The Be Good Tanyas, Rickie Lee Jones, Terumasa Hino, Jack McDuff, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and James Newton, among others.
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