Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John G. Blowers Jr. was born April 21, 1911 in Spartanburg, South Carolina and learned to play percussion during his schooldays and began performing with the Bob Pope Band in 1936.
After attending Oglethorpe College, in 1937 he travelled to New York City, where he found employment as a drummer in Greenwich Village. In 1938 he joined Bunny Berigan’s band, and in 1942 he began performing with the up-and-coming Frank Sinatra, who asked Johnny to record with him. They performed and recorded together regularly until the 1950s.
In 1947, he opened Club Blowers in the Queens district. In addition to Sinatra, Blowers performed with Louis Armstrong, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Sidney Bechet, Eddie Fisher, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, and Mel Tormé.
Johnny Blowers, drummer of the swing era, passed away on July 17, 2006.
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Three Wishes
The Baroness asked Billy James if he was given three wishes what would they be:
- “That I could be with my family.”
- “That Art Blakey should live forever.”
- “For the world to be full of people like you.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Bishop was born on April 5, 1959 in Seattle, Washington and raised in Germany, Washington, DC, San Antonio, Texas and Eugene, Oregon. He started playing drums at 7 in Washington, DC with the Patriots drum corps. He performed regularly throughout high school and college in Oregon, studied with Mel Brown and Charles Dowd and attended the University of Oregon, and later transferred to the jazz program at North Texas State University.
He returned to Seattle in 1981 for an extended engagement with the band Glider and never left. An unusually creative and fertile scene at the time, in the early ’80s, he was a member of the fusion group Blue Sky, which released two Top 10 albums and performed extensively throughout the decade. For 20 years, he was with the piano trio New Stories along with pianist Marc Seales and bassist Doug Miller.
He has recorded, performed and/or toured internationally with Don Lanphere, Mark Murphy, Tom Harrell, Julian Priester, Charles McPherson, Vincent Herring, Nick Brignola, Conte Condoli, Bobby Shew, Larry Coryell, Ernie Watts, Lee Konitz, Slide Hampton, Benny Golson, George Cables, Kenny Werner, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Sonny Fortune, Herb Ellis, Buddy DeFranco, Bobby McFerrin, Joe Locke, Jerry Bergonzi, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Larry Coryell, and countless others.
As an educator he taught drums privately for forty years and was on the faculty at the University of Washington from 2005-2009. He regularly conducts drum and jazz workshops throughout the country. Appearing on more than 100 albums, John was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame in 2008, and was named a “Jazz Hero” by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2019. Drummer John Bishop continues to perform, record and produce.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Austin Percy Brice Jr. was born on March 25, 1923 in New York City. He started his professional career began around the end of World War II, when he played with Benny Carter, Mercer Ellington, Luis Russell, and Eddie Cleanhead Vinson. Playing frequently in Harlem during the early 1950s he worked with Tiny Grimes, Oscar Pettiford, Tab Smith, Lucky Thompson, and Cootie Williams. In addition to leading sessions at Minton’s Playhouse, he also played with Billy Taylor from 1954 to 1956, George Shearing between 1956 to 1958, sharing screen time in the film The Big Beat, and Kenny Burrell 1958–59.
He played behind Sarah Vaughan on tour from 1959 to 1961, then became Harry Belafonte’s drummer for most of the 1960s, but he also worked with Ahmad Jamal, Carmen McRae and Mary Lou Williams in that decade. He led a group called the New Sounds in the early 1970s, and worked with Sy Oliver and Illinois Jacquet.
Though he led a group that was active in the ’70s, the somewhat anti-jazz vibe lent to the drummer’s decision to concentrate on Broadway orchestra work, settling in for long runs on two hot shows, Eubie and Bubbling Brown Sugar. He was also active accompanying the tap group the Copasetics. He was a first~ call musician for jazz festivals and recording sessions.
The repertoire of the Percy Brice Duo with Tom Smith features songcraft from the ’20s through the ’50s. Drummer and bandleader Percy Brice, also known by his nickname Big P, passed away in November 2020 at the age of 97.
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Conversations About Jazz & Other Distractions
Conversations About Jazz Features
Drummer Gayelynn McKinney on March 25
HHM Digital invites you to join us for Conversations About Jazz & Other Distractions with host Carl Anthony on Thursday, March 25 at 7:30 pm (EST). His special guest will be acclaimed drummer Gayelynn McKinney. They will discuss the role of drummers and the messages they convey, McKinney’s career and sample some of her music. This free virtual program will stream on Hammonds House Museum’s Facebook and YouTube channels. Please consider making a donation via our website or during the show to support our programming. For more information about this and upcoming virtual events visit hammondshouse.org.
Gayelynn McKinney is one of the most accomplished drummers to come out of Detroit. Her father was the legendary Jazz pianist and composer, Harold McKinney, who once played with Billie Holliday. Her mother was a noted singer. McKinney began playing drums at the age of two in her dad’s basement, started taking lessons at age eight and had a drum set by age nine. In 10th Grade, she played drums in the Jazz band and saxophone in the Concert band. After graduating college, she and bassist, Marion Hayden, formed Straight Ahead Jazz Band – originally an all-female group – which continues to perform across the U.S. and internationally.
Here are a few highlights of McKinney’s career so far: Opening for Nina Simone in Switzerland (1990), Straight Ahead Jazz Band signs with Atlanta Records and begins decades of touring (1991), Performs at the Detroit Jazz Festival with Aretha Franklin (2004), Tours with Martha Reeves (2008), Performs with Freda Payne at Bird’s Basement in Australia (2019). For more information: gayelynnmckinney.com.
Hammonds House Museum is generously supported by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Fulton County Arts and Culture, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, The National Performance Network, AT&T and WarnerMedia.
Hammonds House Museum’s mission is to celebrate and share the cultural diversity and important legacy of artists of African descent. The museum is the former residence of the late Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds, a prominent Atlanta physician and a passionate arts patron. A 501(c)3 organization which opened in 1988, Hammonds House Museum boasts a permanent collection of more than 450 works including art by Romare Bearden, Robert S. Duncanson, Benny Andrews, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Hale Woodruff, Amalia Amaki, Radcliffe Bailey and Kojo Griffin. In addition to featuring art from their collection, the museum offers new exhibitions, artist talks, workshops, concerts, poetry readings, arts education programs, and other cultural events throughout the year.
Located in a beautiful Victorian home in Atlanta’s historic West End, Hammonds House Museum is a cultural treasure and a unique venue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they continue to observe CDC guidelines, but look forward to welcoming in-person visitors soon! For more information about upcoming virtual events, and to see how you can support their mission and programming, visit their website: hammondshouse.org.
MEDIA: For artwork to go with this release here’s our Dropbox: http://bit.ly/HammondsHouseMuseum. For more information, contact Karen Hatchett at Hatchett PR, karen@hatchettpr.com.
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