Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Denzil DaCosta Best was born April 27, 1917 in New York City, New York into a musical Caribbean family originally from Barbados. Trained on piano, trumpet, and bass, he concentrated on the drums starting in 1943. Between the years 1943 and 1946 he worked with Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet and Chubby Jackson.
Known to sit in at Minton’s Playhouse, he took part in a recording with George Shearing in 1948 and was a founding member of his Quartet, remaining there until 1952. In 1949, he stepped out to play on a recording session with Lennie Tristano for Capitol Records and recorded later with Lee Konitz.
In 1953 a car accident fractured both legs and Best was forced into temporary retirement until 1954. His comeback had him playing with Artie Shaw, and then in a trio with Erroll Garner (1955–57), including Garner’s live album Concert by the Sea. He went on to play with Phineas Newborn, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Tyree Glenn. 1962 saw him in the drummer’s seat on Shiela Jordan’s first album Portrait of Sheila.
Best composed several bebop tunes, including Move, Wee, Nothing But D. Best, and Dee Dee’s Dance. With Thelonious Monk he composed Bemsha Swing and his composition 45 Degree Angle was recorded by Herbie Nichols and Mary Lou Williams.
Suffering from paralysis after the Jordan recording session, drummer, percussionist and composer Denzil Best, who was a prominent bebop drummer in the 1950s and early 1960s, transitioned after falling down a staircase in a New York City subway station at the age of 48 on May 24, 1965.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Cully was born on April 19, 1949 in Manhattan, New York. He began his musical journey at the age of 16 studying with James Rago, Professor of Percussion at the University of Louisville. While still in high school, he formed a very popular quartet, The Charades, then went on to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. There he studied with Alan Dawson and continued his studies with former “Tonight Show” drummer Ed Shaughnessy.
Early in his career Dick performed a variety of musical styles, pop, rock, disco, jazz and country. However, in 1982, he formed the Dick Cully Big Band, a high energy, exciting unit performing a wide variety of arrangements for all age groups. In 1984, he became an artist/endorser for the world famous Slingerland Drum Company.
Cully has worked with Toni Tennille, Sandy Duncan, Florence Henderson, Frank Gorshin, Ray Anthony, Buddy Morrow, Skitch Henderson, Patti Page, Nanette Fabray, Les Elgart, Connie Haines, Bobby Rydell, comedians Foster Brooks and George Kirby. In 1989, the Dick Cully Big Band was chosen as “One of the best bands in the nation” by Down Beat magazine and featured on Black Entertainment Network’s “Jazz Discovery” television program.
Recognized as an educator and clinician, he is the author of Instructional Drum Videos The Workout, Secrets of the World’s Greatest Drummer and More Secrets of the World’s Greatest Drummer, which are in-depth analysis of the late Buddy Rich. Drummer Dick Cully continues to perform and lead his band.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Han Bennink was born April 17, 1942 in Zaandam, Netherlands, the son of a classical percussionist. He began playing the drums and the clarinet during his teens. He also went on to learn to play the violin, banjo and piano, which feature him on some of his recordings.
Through the 1960s, while in his t,wenties he was the drummer with a number of American musicians visiting the Netherlands, including Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy.
He subsequently became a central figure in the emerging European free improvisation scene. In 1963 he formed a quartet with pianist Misha Mengelberg and saxophonist Piet Noordijk which performed at the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival. The following year Han co-founded the Instant Composers Pool with Mengelberg and Willem Breuker, which sponsored Dutch avant garde performances. Late in the decade he played in a trio with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove, which became a duo after Van Hove’s departure in 1976.
From the late 1980s through the early 2000s, Bennik collaborated closely with Dutch post-punk band The Ex, simultaneously playing through the 1990s in Clusone 3, a trio with saxophonist/clarinetist Michael Moore and cellist Ernst Reijseger.
He has recorded twenty albums as a solo or leader and recorded over a eight dozen albums as a sideman with the likes of Derek Bailey, Conny Bauer, Don Cherry and Alexander von Schlippenbach, Steve Lacy, Lee Konitz, Ray anderson, Gary Bartz, Jckie McLean, Paul Bley, Annette Peacock, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Uri Caine, Myra Melford, and Sonny Rollins. (partial list)
His style is wide-ranging, running from conventional jazz drumming to highly unconventional free improvisation. Drummer Han Bennink is best known as one of the pivotal figures in early European free jazz and free improvisation, and he continues to push forward the envelope of his music at 80.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie Smith was born April 15, 1927 in New York City and played locally in the city during the late 1940s before taking a position accompanying Ella Fitzgerald. Working briefly with the Duke Ellington’s Orchestra in 1951 before being replaced by Louie Bellson, he also played with Joe Bushkin, Erroll Garner, Slim Gaillard, Benny Goodman, Hot Lips Page, Oscar Peterson, Artie Shaw, and Slam Stewart.
He performed on television with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in 1952, and later in the decade worked with Billy Taylor, Aaron Bell, and Wild Bill Davison. Relocating to New Haven around 1960, Smith played with Willie Ruff and Dwike Mitchell in a trio setting.
Drummer Charlie Smith, who was an educator late in his life, transitioned on January 15, 1966 in New Haven, Connecticut.
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The Jazz Voyager
Two years ago the Jazz Voyager commenced lockdown against a very serious pandemic that was taking lives without discretion. Though I am beginning to get out and experience life outside with talks, films and music in open air spaces, the airlines has sent another important message by extending my eCredit another year until December 2023. Still aware that the pandemic is not over, I remain vigilant with mask wearing and social distancing in enclosed spaces such as markets, doctor’s offices. It is our duty to keep others safe as well by doing our individual part.
This week we are traveling musically back and taking down off the shelves to listen to We Three, the 1958 recording led by Roy Haynes by a trio of players who made their mark on the genre. Though the group was short-lived, the trio made the best of the time they spent together and delivered this album.
The album was recorded on November 14, 1958 at the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, produced by Esmond Edwards, and was released in May the following year on the New Jazz record label.
Track List | 39:29- Reflection (Ray Bryant) ~ 4:24
- Sugar Ray (Phineas Newborn, Jr.) ~ 6:25
- Solitaire (King Guion, Carl Nutter, Renee Borek) ~ 8:54
- After Hours (Avery Parrish) ~ 11:21
- Sneakin’ Around (Bryant) ~ 4:24
- Our Delight (Tadd Dameron) ~ 4:01
- Roy Haynes – drums
- Phineas Newborn Jr. ~ piano
- Paul Chambers ~ bass
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