Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louis Keppard was born February 2, 1888 in New Orleans, Louisiana and was the older brother of cornetist Freddie Keppard. The guitarist played in the Cherry Blossom Band before leading his own group, the Magnolia Band, which included King Oliver and Honore Dutrey among its members.
He played with Papa Celestin’s Tuxedo Brass Band, Manuel Perez, and followed that residency with the Olympia Orchestra alongside Freddie. In 1917 he moved briefly to Chicago, Illinois but returned soon after. Playing in several New Orleans brass bands, Louis performed as an alto hornist and guitarist from the 1920s through the 1950s, including in the Gibson Brass Band and the Young Excelsior Brass Band.
Keppard’s style of “shuffle rhythms” was an influence on Danny Barker. He recorded with Wooden Joe Nicholas in 1949, and retired from music some time after 1962.
Guitarist, tubist and alto hornist Louis Keppard, who led a band but never recorded as a leader, died in his hometown sixteen days after his 98th birthday on February 18, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Reuben McFall was born on February 1, 1931 in Los Angeles, California to a musician father and grew up in the Belvedere neighborhood of East Los Angeles, long established as a Mexican-American enclave.
McFall attended Westlake College of Music in Hollywood, California, one of the first institutions in the county to offer a diploma in jazz. The school was founded in 1945 and ran until 1961.
As a sideman he performed with Freddie Slack, Vido Musso, Floyd Ray, Glen Henry, Lalo Guerrero. From 1946 to 1955 he recorded albums with Roy Porter and His Orchestra, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Shorty Rogers, Gerald Wilson and Teddi King.
Trumpeter, composer and jazz arranger Reuben McFall, who was also known as Ruben and Rubin and Ruban, is 93 years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Earl Okin was born in Carshalton, Surrey, England on January 31, 1947 and has lived in the West London neighborhood of Notting Hill since he was six years old. In 1959, at the age of 12, he appeared on a BBC TV talent show “All Your Own” playing guitar and singing his own songs. He wrote for The Beatles publisher Dick James.
Recording his first single at Abbey Road in 1967, some of his songs were covered during the 1960s by Cilla Black, Georgie Fame and Helen Shapiro. During the 1970s, Okin started to perform as a support act in large venues, beginning with folk acts and progressing to open for a variety of acts such as Jean-Luc Ponty and Van Morrison. However, it was the 1979 invitation to tour with Paul McCartney and Wings which prompted him to pursue his musical career full-time, and perform at jazz festivals.
In 1981, he appeared on the tv show Parkinson and was invited by Nigel Planer to perform at the Comic Strip. This led to his second career on the alternative comedy circuit where he remains a headline act. However, his act continues to be primarily musical. He has never performed stand-up. Fans’ favourite comedy songs of his are Mango, Bessie and My Room.
Working as a songwriter and jazz singer/musician, with a particular interest in bossa nova, he gives concerts in Brazil from time to time, as well as touring his one-man show, a mixture of music and comedy, worldwide. He has performed in New York City, toured India, Singapore, other nearby countries, and at home in London’s major venues.
He has released two singles, thirteen albums, written an autobiography, composed a six-movement symphony, and produced a biographical documentary Who is Earl Okin? Singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist and comedian Earl Okin continues to perform and tour.
Acquaint an inquisitive mind with a dose of a Carshalton vocalist who is in the company of musical genius around the world as a member of the jazz canon…
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Jazz Poems
THE BUDDY BOLDEN CYLINDER
It doesn’t exist, I know, but I lovev
to think of it, wrapped in a shawl
or bridal veil, or, less dramatically,
in an old copy of the Daily Picayune,
and like a nunstaled, unhatched egg
from which, at the right touch, like mine,
the legendary tone, sealed these long years
in the amber of neglect, would peal and re-
peal across the waters. What waters do
I have in mind? Nothing symbolic, mind you.
I meant the sinuous and filth-rich
Mississippi across which you could hear
him play from Gretna, his tone was so loud
and sweet, with a moanin it like you were
in church, and on those old, slow, low-down
blues Buddy culd make the women jump
the way they liked. But it doesn’t exist,
it never did, except as a relic
for a jazz hagiography, and all
we think we know about Bolden’s music
is, really, a melancholy gossip
and none of it sown by Bolden, who
spent his last twenty-four years in Jackson
(Insane Asylum of Louisiana)
hearing the voices of people who spooked
him before he got there. There’s more than one
kind of ghostly music in the air, all
of them like the wind: you can see it
but you can see the leaves shiver in place
as if they’d like to turn their insides out.
WILLIAM MATTHEWS
from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eugene Seldon Gammage was born January 30, 1931 in Atlanta, Georgia and his original influences as Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, and Elvin Jones. He began his professional career as a drummer in 1952 after serving four years in the Air Force. In 1953 he moved to Los Angeles, California where he found a steady gig with Teddy Charles with Bill Crow on bass. Following this, in 1955 he played with leaders Buddy Collette, Hampton Hawes, and André Previn. In ‘56 he performed with Barney Kessel, Herb Geller and Jack Sheldon
Tenor saxophonist Jack Laird hired him for an engagement at Club El Sereno in East Los Angeles along with pianist Franck Patchen. That November he was in Las Vegas, Nevada with pianist Oscar Peterson. 1957 saw him joining Beverly Kelly and Pat Moran McCoy for a quartet and trio including Scott LaFaro. They recorded and issued two albums in 1958 under the two leaders’ names. From fall 1958 to Spring 1959, he was hired again by Oscar Peterson. The trio, with Ray Brown on bass, recorded a jazz version of My Fair Lady.
Gammage went to St. Louis, Missouri in 1961 and recorded three live dates with Webster Young, Shirley Horn, and Johnny Hartman. By the late Sixties he was residing in New York City and was part of Roswell Rudd’s Primordial group, with Enrico Rava, however, there is no official recording.
The Seventies had him with Gary McFarland and writer, editor David Burnett at Club 55 in New York City, when they were served drinks filled with liquid methadone, provoking a seizure due to overdose. Gary McFarland was pronounced dead in the bar, David Burnett died just a few days later. Fortunately Gene survived after some time in the hospital.
From the mid-seventies to the early eighties, his last known regular gig was with Bobby Short at the Café Carlyle. Never a leader, drummer Gene Gammage has recorded as a sideman on nine albums, been included on seven reissues and been a part of two documentaries covering Gary McFarland and Bobby Short.
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