Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marvin “Smitty” Smith was born on June 24, 1961 Waukegan, Illinois, son of a drumming father, exposing a young boy at a very young age. He began receiving formal musical training on drums at the age of three. An alumnus of Berklee, he has recorded over 200 albums including two as leader with a host of jazz contemporaries.
Marvin was the band drummer for the entire run of The Jay Leno show and from 1995 to 2009 sat in the drummer seat on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, returning at its incarnation in 2010.
In addition, his jazz endeavors have seen Smith touring with the likes of Dave Holland and Sonny Rollins as well as Sting and Willie Nelson among others. He has been a member of The New York Jazz Quartet and has a group with fellow Tonight Show band mate Kevin Eubanks.
Drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith is a frequent in-studio guest on The Loose Cannons sports radio show on KLAC in Los Angeles when the Tonight Show is on hiatus, and he continues to compose, play and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jazz drummer Billy Drummond was born Willis Robert Drummond, Jr. on June 19, 1959 in Newport News, Virginia. From an early age he learned jazz from his father, who was also a drummer and a jazz enthusiast and whose record collection included many recordings of Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Buddy Rich and Elvin Jones, among others.
Billy played in bands from age eight and studied at Shenandoah Conservatory. At the behest of Al Foster he moved to New York in 1986 and shortly thereafter joined the Blue Note band, Out of the Blue (OTB) with whom he recorded their last CD. He subsequently joined the Horace Silver sextet and toured extensively.
Drummond has played and recorded with Nat Adderley, Ralph Moore, Buster Williams, Charles Tolliver, Lew Tabackin and Toshiko Akiyoshi, Hank Jones, James Moody, Sonny Rollins, Andy LaVerne, Lee Konitz, Larry Willis, Toots Thielemans and Freddie Hubbard among others greats.
Billy’s influences include a long list besides Tony Williams, Max Roach, Philly Joe Jones, Al Foster, Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart. His discography includes three albums as a leader, another five as a co-leader, fifteen as a band member with Carla Bley and Steve Kuhn, and sixty-six as a sideman.
He is currently a long-time member of Carla Bley’s Lost Chords Quartet, leads the New York-based band “Freedom of Ideas” in addition to touring, and is Professor of Jazz Drums at the Juilliard School of Music and New York University in New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Connie Kay, the drummer for the longstanding Modern Jazz Quartet was born Conrad Henry Kirnon on April 27, 1927, in Tuckahoe, New York. The self-taught drummer played with Sir Charles Thompson in the 40s along with Miles Davis and Cat Anderson.
By the late forties to the mid-fifties he played off and on with Lester Young, Beryl Booker, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker and others. But it wasn’t until 1955 when replacing Kenny Clarke, that Kay found his home with the Modern Jazz Quartet, an association that would last nearly twenty years.
After the dissolution of the MJQ, Connie played with Chet Baker, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Heath, Jim Hall and Paul Desmond. In the 70s he worked with Tommy Flanagan, Soprano Summit, Benny Goodman and became the house drummer at Eddie Condon’s club.
In 1981 the MJQ reorganized to play festivals and later on a permanent six-months-per-year basis. When Kay’s health began to suffer, the drummer was replaced first by Mickey Roker and then by Albert “Tootie” Heath.
Kay was known for his subtle and quietly effortless playing with the MJQ, but beyond that memorable interaction he was an invaluable asset to everyone he came in contact with. He played with great discretion and restraint making his contribution to one of the great aggregations of all time.
Connie Kay died in New York City on 30 November 1994. He was sixty-seven years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thomas “Tommy” Benford was born in Charleston, West Virginia on April 19, 1905 the younger brother of tuba player Bill Benford. He studied drums and music at the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina and went on tour with the school band traveling to Europe in 1914. By 1920 he was working with the Green River Minstrel Show. He returned to Europe in 1932 becoming part of the expatriate community, for the next nine years toured and played with all the great jazz musicians who came to the continent.
He returned to the United States in 1941 and throughout his long career Benford played and recorded with Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Eddie South, Coleman Hawkins Bill Coleman, Joe Turner, Django Reinhardt, Sidney Bechet, Noble Sissle and Willie “The Lion” Smith. He is credited with helping Chick Webb to play drums and shaped early jazz drumming alongside Sid Catlett.
For the last several decades of his life he was a member of the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band and with Bob Greene’s World of Jelly Roll Morton. Jazz drummer Tommy Benford passed away at the age of 88 on March 24, 1994 in Mount Vernon, New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stan Levey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 5, 1926, the son of a car salesman and boxing promoter. A self-taught prodigy, at age 16 Levey went to a local club where Dizzy Gillespie was headlining and convinced him to let him sit in on drums. So impressed was Dizzy that he offered the youngster an opportunity to join the group full-time. Taking some heat for recruiting a white, Jewish 16 year old to anchor his band, Dizzy simply responded – “show me a better black drummer and I’ll hire him”.
Levey joined the group, relocated to New York City with Dizzy, joined a small band led by Coleman Hawkins featuring Thelonious Monk, cut his first recording session with Art Tatum, played with Ben Webster and sat in with Woody Herman’s First Herd when regular drummer was unavailable.
In 1945 Levey joined Charlie Parker’s Quintet and when Dizzy and Charlie joined forces later that year they kept Levey and brought in bassist Al Haig and pianist Curly Russell. Considered the first and most innovative bebop lineup in history and it was during this period that classic standards like “A Night In Tunisia”, “Manteca” and Groovin’ High” were written.
During the late 40’s Levey toured with Norman Granz’s Jazz At The Philharmonic, in 1951 returned to Philly and formed his own band, worked five years with Stan Kenton, settled on the West coast joining Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All Stars and his drumming would influence the emerging West Coast jazz sound. He increased his session playing backing the likes of Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Holiday and Streisand. He played on over three hundred soundtracks for television and film, and turned his passion for photography into shooting a number of record covers.
Levey retired from music in 1973 to pursue his love of photography and he covered everything from fashion spreads to industrial photos to record jackets. On April 19, 2005 he passed away in Van Nuys, California at the age of 79. He never returned to music.
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