Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bryce Benno Rohde was born on September 12, 1923 in Hobart, Tasmania, an island state of Australia. His early influences were Art Tatum and Nat King Cole but eventually leaned towards George Russell’s Lydian Concept.
He played jazz in Adelaide, Australia early in his career before a 1953 move to Canada. In 1954 he and two other expats plus an American formed the Australian Jazz Quartet/Quintet. The group recorded several albums and toured widely in the United States, but broke up in 1958 following a tour of Australia.
Rohde led his own quartets in Australia until 1964, then moved to California in 1965. After then he based himself out of San Francisco, leading his own ensembles at times. Among those Australian musicians with whom he worked extensively are Bruce Cale and Charlie Munro.
The pianist played New York City and Chicago, and recorded for Bethlehem Records. He also published a book combining original jazz compositions and his other passion, black and white photography. It shares the title of one of his seven recordings as a leader, Turn Right At New South Wales.
Over a career in jazz spanning more than 50 years he performed with Count Basie, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and John Coltrane among others. He eventually settled in San Francisco, California where he continued to perform and record until his death. Pianist, composer and bandleader Bryce Rohde passed away on January 26, 2016.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cliff Leeman was born in Portland, Maine on September 10, 1913. At age 13 he played percussion with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and toured as a xylophonist on the vaudeville circuit late in the 1920s. He first made his name in the jazz world during the Thirties and Forties working in the swing bands of Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnet, Johnny Long, and Woody Herman.
After a stint in the Army in 1944, he worked with Don Byas, John Kirby, Raymond Scott, Jimmy Dorsey, and Ben Webster. He briefly left the music industry before joining the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1947, later moving on to the Charlie Barnet Orchestra and closing out the decade in Bob Chester’s big band ensemble.
He played on radio and television in the 1950s, in addition to playing live often with Eddie Condon and Bobby Hackett. His later associations include Pee Wee Erwin, Yank Lawson/Bob Haggart, Ralph Sutton, Billy Butterfield. During the 1960s he performed with Bob Crosby, Wild Bill Davison, Dukes of Dixieland, Peanuts Hucko and Joe Venuti. The Seventies saw Cliff with The Kings of Jazz, Bud Freeman, Don Ewell, the World’s Greatest Jazz Band, and Jimmy McPartland.
He recorded several albums for Fat Cat Jazz in the 1970s. Drummer Cliff Leeman, whose nickname is Mr. Time, passed away on April 26, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cæcilie Norby was born on September 9, 1964 in Frederiksberg, Denmark, into a musical family, her father a classical composer and her mother an opera singer. She was a founding member of the band Street Beat in 1982 then for two years, she was a member of the jazz-rock band Frontline. From 1985 to 1993, she worked with singer Nina Forsberg in the rock band One~Two. During the 1990s, she turned to jazz and released her first solo album for Blue Note.
Her self~titled debut recording co~produced by Niels Lan Doky featured Scott Robinson, Randy Brecker and Michael Brecker each played on one track. Doky produced her following album My Corner Of The Sky in 1996, which prominently featured pianists David Kikoski, Joey Calderazzo and Terri Lyne Carrington on drums. The repertoire for both recordings included only a few jazz standards like Summertime or Just One of Those Things, instead she and Lan Doky arranged classic popular songs for a jazz line-up, like Wild Is the Wind, By the Time I Get to Phoenix and a track by Curtis Mayfield on the first album. The Look of Love, Life on Mars, Spinning Wheel and Set Them Free by Sting she recorded on the second.
For both albums Norby wrote lyrics to compositions by Randy Brecker, Chick Corea, Don Grolnick and Wayne Shorter. Both albums gained wide attention and five-digit sales, especially in Denmark and also in Japan.
Her third album Queen of Bad Excuses, released in 1999, was a collaboration with bassist Lars Danielsson, who already played bass on her sophomore release. This time she brought into the studio pianists Ben Besiakov and Lars Jansson, drummers Anders Kjellberg, Per Lindvall, Billy Hart, guitarist John Scofield, saxophonist Hans Ulrik and percussionist Xavier Desandre Navarre. Vocalist Cæcilie Norby continues to advance the music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Walter Bowman was born September 8, 1914 in Buffalo, New York but was raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where he learned to play piano as a four year old.
He moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and played there for a time, then went to London, England working with Jack Hylton in the mid-1930s. After returning to the States he settled in New York and played with Bobby Hackett, Sharkey Bonano, Sidney Bechet, and Bud Freeman late in the decade.
In the early 1940s, he worked with Jack Teagarden, Joe Marsala, Muggsy Spanier, Lee Wiley, and Eddie Condon. He took positions with ABC and NBC in the late 1940s including Perry Como and worked as a studio musician on recordings.
In the 1950s, he once again worked with Bud Freeman and with Phil Napoleon shortly before his own death. Pianist Dave Bowman passed away from an automobile accident on December 28, 1964 in Miami, Florida.
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Three Wishes
When asked what his three wishes would be Claude Purvis responded to Nica with:
- “The first, I would try to be in a position to expose my talent to everyone, to make my music known to all.”
- “A comfortable place to live.”
- “An opportunity to help jazz. I think about myself first.”
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