Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Sebastian “Sabby” Lewis was born November 1, 1914 in Middleburg, North Carolina. Raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania he started taking piano lessons when he was five and moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1932 at fourteen. After working with Tasker Crosson’s Ten Statesmen two years later, he organized his own seven-piece band in 1936.
The late 1930s and early Forties saw Sabby and his band as mainstays at notable Boston jazz venues. In 1942, Lewis’ band won a listener contest on a broadcast from the Statler Hotel’s Terrace Room in Boston. The win garnered the band a regular gig on NBC’s The Fitch Bandwagon, heard on 120 stations at the time.
Though Lewis did not tour frequently nor leave Boston often, he did perform on Broadway, in ballrooms and clubs in Manhattan on 52nd Street. He performed with Dinah Washington and Billy Eckstine. During World War II his orchestra included tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, and drummer Alan Dawson spent much of the 1950s in the band. His band also included trumpeter Cat Anderson, Sonny Stitt, Roy Haynes, Al Morgan, Idrees Sulieman and Joe Gordon.
Having been seriously injured in an automobile accident in 1962, his performing was greatly curtailed. Sabby became Boston’s first Black disk jockey at WBMS, which later became WILD in the Fifties. He went on to be a housing investigator for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination until his retirement in 1984.
Pianist, bandleader, and arranger Sabby Lewis died on July 9, 1994.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Toshiyuki Miyama was born on October 31, 1921 in Chiba, Japan. He played in a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force band during World War II. After the war, he joined the Lucky Puppy Orchestra.
From 1950 he led his own ensemble, Jive Ace, however, eight years later the group expanded to big-band size and changed its name to the New Herd. The ensemble’s arranger was Kozaburo Yamaki.
New Herd recorded with Charles Mingus in 1971 and toured worldwide throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Miyama led the ensemble for more than fifty years, continuing to perform into the 2000s.
Clarinetist and bandleader Toshiyuki Miyama died on May 24, 2016 at 94 years.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carolyn Lee Jones was born on October 30, 1950 in Nebraska to parents who were musicians. Always wanting to be a singer, her musical journey began as a child while growing up in Nebraska. During her formative years she sang in her school choirs and studied voice. After graduation, the lure of the big city drew her to Dallas, Texas where she was a retailer for luxury stores. While traveling as a buyer she sought music opportunities.
By 2008 Carolyn had changed direction and pursued music full time as a vocalist and bandleader. That year she recorded her debut release Bon Appetit! In New York City, in which she sings a duet with guest Bob Dorough.
Over the next thirteen years she recorded four more albums, while performing publicly and privately with her group, Fresh Vintage Jazz Ensemble & The Satin Dolls Band. Vocalist Carolyn Lee Jones continues to perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Walter Dobschinski was born Dobrzynski on October 29, 1908 in Berlin, Germany. He received formal musical training on piano at the Berlin Conservatory, but concentrated on trombone once he became interested in jazz.
For most of the 1930s he played with Teddy Stauffer, including tours of western Europe and on the ship SS Reliance. In 1939 he worked with Kurt Hohenberger, and was involved with the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra during World War II. Following the war, he led a swing jazz ensemble for Berliner Rundfunk, recording extensively with this group with Rex Stewart appearing on some of these recordings. He continued leading ensembles in the 1950s.
Trombonist and bandleader Walter Dobschinski, who in his later career concentrated on arranging and composition, died on February 16, 1996 in Berlin.
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On The Bookshelf
Lush Life: A Biography Of Billy Strayhorn
Billy Strayhorn, one of the greatest composers in the history of American music, the creator of a body of work of standards like Take the A Train. Yet, as a composer with no stage presence many see him as overshadowed by his friend and collaborator Duke Ellington, with whom he worked with for the two and a half decades.
The songwriter and arranger was an integral component of the Harlem Renaissance and the evolution of jazz. Lush Life is a vibrant and absorbing account of the Strayhorn’s life and the times that other jazz musicians led in Harlem and Paris. While composing some of the most gorgeous American music of this century, Strayhorn labored under a complex agreement whereby Ellington took the bows for his work.
Fifty-one years from the date of his birth, Billy Strayhorn transitioned due to cancer and alcohol abuse. The small, shy black composer carried himself with singular style and grace as one of the few jazzmen to be openly homosexual. This biography has sparked an enthusiastic revival of interest in Billy Strayhorn’s work and is already acknowledged as a jazz classic.
Lush Life: 1996 | David Hajdu
Granta Publications