Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Henry “Boots” Mussulli was born in Milford, Massachusetts on November 18, 1915. His first instrument was clarinet, which he first played at age 12.
By the Forties he was playing with Mal Hallett in Massachusetts and joined Teddy Powell’s group in 1943-44. He played with Stan Kenton from 1944 to 1947, then returned to play with Kenton again on tour in 1952 and 1954.
He played with Vido Musso, Gene Krupa, Charlie Ventura, Serge Chaloff, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Herb Pomeroy.
In 1949, Boots opened a jazz club in his hometown, called The Crystal Room and from the mid-1950s, he concentrated more on music education, leading a local youth orchestra, the Milford Youth Band. They performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1967.
Saxophonist Boots Mussulli, based chiefly out of Boston, Massachusetts, passed away from cancer on September 23, 1967 in Norfolk, Massachusetts.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chuck Andrus was born Charles Edmund Andrus Jr. on November 17, 1928 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Raised in New England, he studied at the Manhattan School of Music.
In the late 1940s he formed his own ensemble in Springfield, Massachusetts which included Sal Salvador and Phil Woods. He played with Charlie Barnet in 1953, then with Claude Thornhill through the middle of the decade. While with Thornhill he met Terry Gibbs, and the two frequently played and recorded together in subsequent years.
As a freelance musician in New York, Andrus worked with Don Stratton, Bernard Peiffer, and Jim Chapin; he also recorded extensively with Woody Herman. Double bassist Chuck Andrus passed away on June 12, 1997.
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Three Wishes
Pannonica inquired of Leo Wright, if given three, what would he wish for and he answered her by saying:
- “I wish that people would be more individualistic.”
- “The problem in my profession, that the supply is greater than the demand… I wish that that wasn’t so.”
- “I wish the public in general would realize the importance of jazz.”
*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…
Albert Bennington Lucas was born on November 16, 1916 in Brantford, Ontario, Canada and took piano lessons as a child from his concert pianist mother, Francis Bradley Lucas. Eventually switching to bass and tuba at age 12, after moving to New York City in 1933 he played with Kaiser Marshall, then joined the Royal Sunset Orchestra, where he played from 1933 to 1942.
During the 1940s, Lucas appeared on record with Hot Lips Page, Coleman Hawkins, Eddie Heywood, Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, James P. Johnson, J.J. Johnson, Ben Webster, Erroll Garner, and Eddie South.
He toured and recorded with Illinois Jacquet from 1947 to 1953, recording in Detroit with Jacquet’s all-star band which included Sonny Stitt, Leo Parker, Sir Charles Thompson, Maurice Simon and Shadow Wilson before returning to play with Heywood again from 1954 to 1956.
He also recorded in the 1950s with Ruby Braff, Charlie Byrd, and Teddy Wilson. In his last two decades he worked primarily as a studio musician backing up groups at Apollo Theater performances, playing jazz only occasionally. Double bassist Al Lucas passed away on June 19, 1983 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edward Thomas Harvey was born on November 15, 1925 in Blackpool, England, but grew up in Sidcup, where he attended Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School. At the age of 16, he began studying engineering in nearby Crayford and took his first professional job as a musician playing trombone with George Webb and his Dixielanders, a pioneering UK traditional jazz band.
After the World World War II, Harvey joined Freddy Randall and also began performing at Club Eleven in London, England with a number of young musicians, among them Ronnie Scott and John Dankworth who were beginning to experiment with the bebop style that they had picked up from US musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
When the Dankworth Seven formed in 1950, Harvey was a founder member and the percussionist vocalist Frank Holder was also featured in this group. He stayed until 1953, performing on both piano and trombone, and spent the 1950s performing and recording with a number of important UK jazz groups including bands led by Tubby Hayes, Vic Lewis, Don Rendell, and Woody Herman. He also began arranging for groups like Jack Parnell’s Orchestra.
From 1963 to 1972 Eddie was pianist with the Humphrey Lyttelton band. During that time of the early 1970s he also became interested in teaching jazz. His jazz piano course at the City Lit was one of the first jazz education courses in Europe. This led to his writing Teach Yourself Jazz Piano, which was published in the Teach Yourself series. After ten years teaching Music at Haileybury College in Hertfordshire, he accepted the newly created role of Head of Jazz at the London College of Music. Later teaching posts included the Guildhall and Royal Colleges of Music.
Pianist, trombonist, arranger and educator Eddie Harvey, who never led a recording session but was the inspiration for the Richmond Canoe Club Walking Division, passed away on October 9, 2012.