Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Larry Binyon was born on September 16, 1908 in Urbana, Illinois and his mother shared some of her musical knowledge. By age eighteen he was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,playing E flat soprano flute in the school’s concert band as well as flute and piccolo in its first regimental band during the 1926-27 school year.
After spending one year at college by 1927 he was already playing professionally in Chicago as part of Beasley Smith’s band, which also included drummer Ray McKinley and clarinetist Matty Matlock. Flute may have been his first instrument, or his primary one at school, but tenor saxophone became his main instrument for dance bands.
Later that year Binyon joined bandleader Ben Pollack when he returned to Victor’s Chicago studio after a five-month hiatus. History does not reveal him as a bandleader as there is little evidence of him having led his own bands, and no recordings were ever issued under his own name. He certainly has a load of credits as a band member, however, and was adept in both big band and small group settings.
Working a variety of radio jobs during the day, one eye glued open to help recover from the previous night’s late-ending gig.During the 1920s he worked with Irving Mills’ Hotsy-Totsy Gang, Roger Wolfe Kahn & His Orchestra, and Mildred Bailey with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra to name a few.
His widest exposure on recording is his backup work on records by the Boswell Sisters, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Fats Waller & His Buddies sessions, Henry “Red” Allen, Eddie Condon, Toby Hardwicke, Gene Krupa. Saxophonist, clarinetist, and flutist Larry Binyon passed away on February 10, 1974.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Barbara Gracey Thompson was born on July 27, 1944 in Oxford, England. She studied saxophone and classical composition at the Royal College of Music, but it was the music of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane that made her shift her interests to jazz and saxophone.
Around 1970, Thompson was part of Neil Ardley’s New Jazz Orchestra and appeared on albums by Colosseum. Beginning in 1975, she was involved in the foundation of three bands: United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, a group of bandleaders; Barbara Thompson’s Jubiaba, a nine piece Latin/rock band; and Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia, her most recent band with pianist Peter Lemer, vocalist Billy Thompson, bassist Dave Ball, and the late Jon Hiseman on drums.
Awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1996 for her services to music, due to Parkinson’s disease diagnosed in 1997, she retired as an active saxophonist in 2001 with a farewell tour. After a period of working as a composer exclusively, she returned to the stage in 2003.
Following hospitalization with atrial fibrillation, she landed a role in an accident and emergency department featured in an episode of the Channel 4 fly-on-the-wall television documentary “24 Hours in A&E” in October 2020.
Thompson has worked closely with Andrew Lloyd Webber on musicals such as Cats and Starlight Express, his Requiem, and Lloyd Webber’s 1978 classical-fusion album Variations. She has written several classical compositions, music for film and television, a musical of her own and songs for the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia and her big band Moving Parts.
She played the incidental music in the ITV police series A Touch of Frost starring David Jason, and flute on Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. Saxophonist and flutist Barbara Thompson remains active.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gregory Herbert was born on May 19, 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and started on alto saxophone at age 12. In 1964 he did a short stint in the Duke Ellington Orchestra, then studied at Temple University from 1965 to 1971.
While a student Gregory recorded with Pat Martino in 1968. From 1971 to 1975 he toured with Woody Herman, then played with Harold Danko in 1975 and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra from 1975 to 1977.
After his tenure with the orchestra, he played briefly with Chuck Israels and Blood, Sweat and Tears. Additionally, Herbert appeared on Chet Baker’s Once Upon a Summertime in 1977 along with Harold Danko, Ron Carter and Mel Lewis.
Saxophonist and flautist Gregory Herbert passed away from a heroin overdose on January 31, 1978 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He never recorded as a leader.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Edwin Morrissey was born on May 9, 1940 in Horley, Surrey, England. Self-taught, he started playing clarinet in his school band, The Delta City Jazzmen, at the age of sixteen with fellow pupils. He then joined the Original Climax Jazz Band before going on to join trumpeter Gus Galbraith’s Septet, where alto saxophonist Peter King introduced him to Charlie Parker’s recordings, Shortly afterward he began specializing on tenor saxophone.
Making his name as a hard bop player, Morrissey appeared regularly at the Marquee Club in 1960, and recorded his first solo album It’s Morrissey, Man! in 1961 at the age of 21 for Fontana Records. Spending most of 1962 in Calcutta, India as part of the Ashley Kozak Quartet, they played three 2-hour sessions seven days a week. Upon returning to the UK he formed his quartet and recorded three LPs, Have You Heard?, Storm Warning!, and Here and Now & Sounding Good!.
He went on to play regular gigs in London and during this time Dick also played extensively in bands led by Ian Hamer and Harry South, including The Six Sounds. He also played briefly in Ted Heath’s Big Band, Johnny Dankworth and his Orchestra, the Harry South Big Band. and Eric Burdon and The Animals’ Big Band.
The mid-1960s, saw Dick played with Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy Witherspoon, J. J. Jackson and Sonny Stitt together with guitarist Ernest Ranglin recorded with him during the Sixties and early Seventies.
In 1969, Morrissey by thenwas a many-time winner and runner-up of the Melody Maker Jazz Poll, and teaming up with another Melody Maker award-winner, guitarist Terry Smith, with whom he had worked in J. J. Jackson’s Band, to form an early jazz-rock group, If.
When If disbanded in 1975, he toured Germany and the United States, recording with the Average White Band, before meeting up with Glaswegian guitarist, Jim Mullen. With some of the members of AWB, together they formed Morrissey–Mullen, recording their first album, Up in 1976) in New York. On returning to Great Britain, Morrissey–Mullen formed another band which rapidly became Britain’s most highly acclaimed jazz-fusion band of the day. They ultimately recorded seven albums over the 16 years they were together, with Morrissey and Mullen collaborating on each other’s solo albums.
He went on to have numerous collaborations with Tubby Hayes, Bill Le Sage, Roy Budd, Ian Hamer, Ian Carr, Tony Lee, Tony Archer, Michael Garrick, Spike Robinson, Allan Ganley, Peter King, Ray Warleigh, and Hoagy Carmichael among others. Tenor and soprano saxophonist, flautist, and composer Dick Morrissey passed away on November 8, 2000.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Owens, was born Charles M. Brown on May 4, 1939 in Phoenix, Arizona and began playing music while attending the University of San Diego. Following a stint in the United States Armed Forces, he studied at Berklee College of Music.
Working in the bands of Buddy Rich and Mongo Santamaria as an alto saxophonist in the late 1960s. In the 1970s played mostly tenor and soprano saxophone. He played in that decade with Bobby Bryant, Paul Humphrey, Diana Ross, John Mayall, Frank Zappa, Lorez Alexandria, Henry Franklin, Patrice Rushen, Gerald Wilson, and James Newton among others.
He worked with Newton again in the mid-1980s, and also played during the same decade with John Carter, Horace Tapscott, and Mercer Ellington. Later he worked with Carmen Bradford, Jeannie Cheatham and Jimmy Cheatham, and Buddy Childers.
Saxophonist and flautist Charles Owens continues to pursue excellence with his music.
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