Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Thomas was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on December 23, 1908 and was the brother of Walter “Foots” Thomas. He first went to New York City with Jelly Roll Morton in 1929.
During the 1930s he worked with Blanche Calloway and other bands. The early Forties saw him working with jazz musician Dave Martin. He gave up playing to become a vocal coach and songwriter and later an A&R executive.
Alto saxophonist and songwriter Joe Thomas transitioned on April 15, 1997.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leonard “Red” Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 22, 1929 to Barney Balaban, former president of Paramount Pictures. By the Fifties he was residing in the Florida panhandle, working as a farmer and playing in regional ensembles. He moved to New York City in the mid-1960s and held a regular gig at the Dixieland jazz club Your Father’s Mustache.
He worked extensively as a sideman, for musicians such as Wild Bill Davison, Eddie Condon, Gene Krupa, Dick Wellstood, and Kenny Davern. He opened the third incarnation of Eddie Condon’s Jazz club on W. 54th Street after arranging permission for using Eddie’s name from Condon’s widow. He co-led the house band with Ed Polcer from 1975, with whom he later shared ownership of the club. Other musicians in this outfit included Vic Dickenson, Warren Vache, and Connie Kay. The club closed in the mid-1980s.
Tubist, sousaphonist, gui Red Balaban, who also played banjo, stand-up bass, slide trombone, ukulele and rhythm guitar, transitioned on December 29, 2013 at his lakefront home in West Haven, Connecticut.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marshall Richard Brown was born on December 21, 1920 in Framingham, Massachusetts and graduated from New York University with a degree in music. He was a band teacher in New York City schools, and one of his school bands performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in the 1950s.
With George Wein, he went to Europe to look for musicians for the International Youth Band. In the late 1950s he started the Newport Youth Band and his students included Eddie Gomez, Duško Gojković, George Gruntz, Albert Mangelsdorff, Jimmy Owens, and Gabor Szabo.
He worked with Ruby Braff, Bobby Hackett, Lee Konitz, and Pee Wee Russell. Valve trombonist and teacher Marshall Brown transitioned on December 13, 1983 in New York City. He was 67.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Reinhold Svensson was born December 20, 1919 in Husum, Germany. He recorded as a solo artist in 1941-1942, then joined the ensemble of violinist Hasse Kahn. In 1948, Putte Wickman took leadership of the group, and he worked with it until 1960 as a performer, arranger, and composer.
Reinhold appeared at the Paris Jazz Festival in 1949, worked with Arne Domnerus’s orchestra, and played with Charlie Norman in 1950-1951 as a duo under the names Ralph & Bert Berg and the Olson Brothers.
He also recorded with his own ensembles including Ragtime Reinhold. Domnerus, Jack Noren, Simon Brehm, and Thore Jederby were sidemen of his in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Pianist, Hammond organist and composer Reinhold Svensson transitioned on November 23, 1968 in Stockholm, Sweden.
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Jazz Poems
CABARET (1927, Black & Tan Chicago) Rich, flashy, puffy-faced, Hebrew and Anglo-Saxon, The overlords sprawlhere with their glittering darlings, The smoke curls thick, in the dimmed light Surreptitiously, deaf-mute waiters Flatter the grandees, Going easily over the rich carpets, Wary lest they kick over the bottles Under the tables. The jazzband unleashes its frenzy. Now, now To it Roger; that’s a nice doggie Show your tricks to the gentlemen The trombone belches, and the saxophone Wails curdingly, the cymbals clash, The drummer twitches in an epileptic fit Muddy water Round my feet Muddy water The chorus sways in. The “Creole Beauties from New Orleans” (By way of Atlanta, Louisville, Washington, Yonkers, With stop-overs they’ve used nearly all their lives) Their creamy skin flushing rose warm O, le bal des belle quarterounes! Their shapely bodies naked save For tattered pink silk bodices, short velvet tights, Red bandanas on their sleek and close-clipped hair; To bring to mind (aided by the bottles under the tables) Life upon the river— Muddy water, river sweet (Lafitte the pirate, instead, And his doughty diggers of gold) There’s peace and happiness there I declare (In Arkansas, Poor half-naked fools, tagged with identification numbers, Worn out upon the levees, Are carted back to the serfdom They had never left before And may never leave again Bee—dap—ee-–DOOP, dee—ba—dee—BOOP The girls wiggle and twist Oh you too, Proud high-stepping beauties Show your paces to the gentlemen. A prime filly, seh. What am I offered, gentlemen, gentlemen…. I’ve been away a year today To wander and roar I don’t care if it’s muddy there (Now that the floods recede, What is there left the miserable folks? Oh time in abundance to count their losses, There is so little else to count.) Still it’s my home, sweet home From the lovely throats Moans and deep cries for home: Nashville, Toledo, Spout Springs, Boston, Creoles from Germantown;— The bodies twist and rock; The glasses are filled up again…. (In Mississippi The black folk huddle, mute, uncomprehending Wondering “how come the good Lord Could treat them this a way”) shelter Down to the Delta (Along the Yahoo The buzzards fly over, over, low Glutted, but with their scrawny necks stretching, Peering still.) I’ve got my toes turned Dixie ways Round that Delta let me laze The band goes mad, the drummer throws his sticks At the moon, a papier-maché moon, The chorus leaps into weird posturings, The firm-fleshed arms plucking at grapes to stain Their corralled mouths; seduction bodies weaving Bending, writhing, turning My heart cries out for MUDDY WATER (Down in the valleys The stench of the drying mud Is a bitter reminder of death Dee da dee DAAAAH STERLING A. BROWNfrom Jazz Poems | Selected and edited by Kevin Young
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