Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edward “Bruno” Carr was born on February 9, 1928 in The Bronx, New York. Growing up he lived around many different ethnic groups, including neighborhoods with German and Italian residents. Listening to the radio as a youth, he heard different styles of music while developing his ear and his memory. By the time he started playing professionally he had anarsenal of songs that he surprised band leaders he already knew and had no need for charts when they handed them to him.
As a timbale player in Latin bands, one can hear the inflection in the way he plays his small tom-toms at times. Though not a household name, his playing with a lot of fire and conviction made him a sought after drummer among the jazz elite. Kenny Burrell, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Michael Franks, Aretha Franklin, Monte Alexander, Stanley Turrentine, Roy Ayers, King Curtis and Harry “Sweets” Edison have all had him on their bandstand.
Here recorded several single albums, each with Aretha, Curtis Amy, Walter Davis Jr., Lou Donaldson, and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, however, his largest body of work was with Herbie Mann, recording eighteen albums with the flutist from 1964 to 1970.
Drummer Bruno Carr, who was a frequent collaborator with Ray Charles, transitioned from lung cancer on October 25, 1993 in Denver Colorado at the age of 65.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Vincent Peter Colaiuta was born on February 5, 1956 in Brownsville, Pennsylvania and was given his first drum kit when he was seven. He took to it naturally, with little instruction. By fourteen, the school band teacher gave him a book that taught him some of the basics and Buddy Rich was his favorite drummer until he heard the album Ego by Tony Williams, an event that changed his life. He started listening to organ groups, notably Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff and Don Patterson.
While matriculating through Berklee College of Music in Boston , Massachusetts at the time jazz fusion was on the rise, he listened to and admired Alphonse Mouzon and Billy Cobham. After leaving school, he played local gigs in Boston, joined a brief tour organized by Al Kooper, then worked in California on an album by Christopher Morris.
Returning to Boston, Colaiuta was drawn back to California by friends and took the bus from Boston to Los Angeles during the blizzard of 1978. After performing in jazz clubs, he won the audition to play drums for Frank Zappa, with whom he toured and appeared on the albums Joe’s Garage, Tinsel Town Rebellion, and Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar.
In 1981, he left Zappa for the gig as a studio musician and recorded for the band Pages, Gino Vannelli, saxophonist Tom Scott, bassist Larry Klein, Joni Mitchell, touring with the latter. The late Eighties saw him as the house drummer for The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. The band was led by Mark Hudson and was called the Party Boys and the Tramp.
By the end of the 1980s back as a studio musician he was recording albums, doing TV and film work during the day, and playing clubs at night. He worked with jazz musicians Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Buell Neidlinger, and the Buddy Rich Big Band. The 1990s he was with Sting, and released his debut solo album as well as two more as a leader.
He has won over fifteen Drummer of the Year awards from Modern Drummer magazine’s annual reader polls. These include ten awards in the “Best Overall” category. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014. Colaiuta has won one Grammy Award and has been nominated twice. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta continues to perform, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Black, born January 23, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, started out as the drummer in the house band at the Philadelphia Blue Note Jazz Club where he played with the likes of Charlie Parker, Buddy DeFranco and Zoot Sims.
From 1953 to 1955 Black was a part of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra until he contracted polio, forcing him to leave the band. After recovering, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and partnered with Bob Scobey until the latter’s death in 1963.
Continuing to perform with Bay Area and various international jazz musicians, drummer Dave Black, most notable for his work with Duke Ellington, transitioned on December 4, 2006
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dannee Fullerton was born January 12, 1944 in Los Angeles, California and at the age of four, moved with his mother to Saudi Arabia, joining his father who worked for the Arabian American Oil Company. By 11, he was enrolled at the Institut Montana Zugerberg, an all boys international school in Switzerland. It was here that drums became a strong influence and his very first drum set was a pair of brushes and a set of bongo drums. Along with singing, Dannee played the guitar and the drums.
At 14, he started a band at the Institut and gave concerts 3 to 4 times a year, something that had never before been accomplished on that campus. By 15 Dannee attended a concert and on the bill was the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and the Benny Goodman Orchestra featuring Gene Krupa playing Sing,Sing,Sing. The effect upon hearing this music caused Fullerton to give away all his rock and roll albums and so he could seriously concentrate on jazz.
During these formative years, he taught himself and others to play Jazz and continued to hold jazz concerts at school. Creating the school’s first jazz club, convincing the Director to allow students to attend jazz concerts, he was able to see concerts by the Oscar Peterson Trio, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Ahmed Jamal, Cannonball Adderly, the John Coltrane Quartet and the Dave Brubeck Quartet… Dannee was now hooked on the jazz art form and was intent on learning it.
Graduating from high school, Fullerton attended Berklee College of Music and studied under Alan Dawson, Herb Pomeroy, John La Porta, and Jack Peterson. Later he studied privately with drummer Pete La Roca. He played sessions with Keith Jarrett, Mick Goodrick, Gene Perla, John Abercrombie, Sam Rivers, Sadao Watanabe, Byard Lancaster and other students at the time. He performed with the Keith Jarrett Trio for two years, in his Boston, Massachusetts trio.
Drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam era, he served in various Army bands over the next 24 years, serving in Europe, Korea, Okinawa and many locations within the United States. During his service Dannee performed with Maynard Ferguson, Herb Ellis, The Ink Spots, Bill Watrous, Bill Lohr, “Jazz Express” (Dannee’s own group) John Payne, Don Erdman, Kurt Black, Buddy Tate, Joe Newman, Mike Francis and Curt Warren to name a few.
Retiring from military service in 1989, he settled outside Tacoma, Washington. Drummer Dannee Fullerton, who never recorded professionally, continues to perform locally with Jack Percival, Sid Potter, Tim Eikholt, Tom Russell, Gary Black, Joe Bach, Roger Gard, Pete Lira, Bob McNamara, Ken Upton and Lance Buller, among others.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Abbey “Chinee Bébé” Foster was born on January 9, 1902 in New Orleans, Louisiana. A self-taught jazz drummer, he played in Storyville with William Ridgley’s Tuxedo Orchestra, and with Buddie Petit in the Eagle Band.
He recorded with Celestin’s Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra in 1927. After years of retirement, he made a comeback with Punch Miller’s Band at Preservation Hall in 1961.
On September 12, 1962 drummer Abbey Foster transitioned in his hometown.
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