Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sandy Mosse was born on May 29, 1929 in Detroit, Michigan and learned clarinet and alto saxophone early in life, but switched to tenor saxophone at the beginning of the 1950s. Based out of Chicago, Illinois during the decade, he made several forays abroad, playing in Paris with Wallace Bishop in 1951. On his 1953 tour of Europe he performed with Django Reinhardt and Woody Herman.
Upon returning to Chicago in 1955 he played with Bill Russo, Chubby Jackson, James Moody, and Cy Touff. Mosse and Touff also co-led an octet called Pieces of Eight late in the 1950s into the early 1960s, featuring trumpeter John Howell. He received awards from Down Beat and Playboy late in the 1950s.
The 1960s saw him playing with Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, and Dave Remington. During this time Sandy formed a band with flugelhornist Warren Kime called Pieces of Eight. Unfortunately, that same decade he was diagnosed with cancer.
Marrying a Dutch woman Clara, he moved to Amsterdam in the 1970s, playing on national radio and teaching at the Royal Dutch Conservatory. Recording less, he occasionally toured the U.S. with Zoot Sims and Al Cohn. In the Netherlands, he played with an ensemble called Volume Two, with Irvin Rochlin, Klaus Flenter, Evert Hekkema, Ben Gerritsen, and Lex Cohen.
Tenor saxophonist Sandy Mosse, influenced by Lester Young, passed away on July 1, 1983 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Arthur “Traps” Trappier was born on May 28, 1910 in Georgetown, South Carolina and played with Charlie Skeets and Blanche Calloway in the late 1920s. After working steadily through the 1930s, he joined Fats Waller in 1941-42 before serving in the military during World War II.
He led his own trio in various hotels in New York City in the 1950s, and played as a sideman into the 1970s. Among those he played with are Josh White, Wilbur De Paris, Edmond Hall, Sy Oliver, Hot Lips Page, Buddy Johnson, Wingy Manone, Sidney Bechet, Benny Goodman, and Red Allen.
He recorded with Waller, Hall, Conrad Janis, Punch Miller, Mutt Carey, Tony Prenti, Willie “The Lion” Smith, and Rex Stewart. Drummer Arthur Trappier passed away on May 17, 1975 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Albert Nicholas was born on May 27, 1900 in New Orleans, Louisiana and his primary instrument was the clarinet, which he studied with Lorenzo Tio in his hometown of New Orleans. Late in the 1910s he played with Buddy Petit, King Oliver, and Manuel Perez.
Spending three years in the Merchant Marines, he then joined Oliver in Chicago, Illinois from 1925 to 1927. After time in East Asia and Egypt, he returned to New York City in 1928 and played with Luis Russell until 1933. During this time in the city Albert played with Red Allen, Charlie Holmes, and J. C. Higginbotham. He would later play with Chick Webb, and Louis Armstrong with Russell and Jelly Roll Morton.
The Dixieland jazz revival of the late 1940s reinvigorated his career, playing with Art Hodes, Bunk Johnson, and Kid Ory. Nicholas had a regular gig with Ralph Sutton in 1948. In 1953 he moved to France and except for recording sessions in the U.S. in 1959-60, he remained there for the rest of his life.
Clarinetist Albert Nicholas, who was active from his teen years until his death, passed away on September 3, 1973 in Base, Switzerland.
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Three Wishes
Nica spoke with Toshiko Akiyoshi and made the inquiry of her three wishes were she blessed with them and she replied with the following:
- “I want to be a pianist who can play everything in my mind. If I had this wish, I think two and three… I know they will come.”
*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…
Kitty Kallen, born Katie Kallen on May 25, 1921 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was one of seven children. As a child, she won an amateur contest by imitating popular singers. Returning home with her prize camera, her father punished her for stealing it. Only when neighbors subsequently visited to congratulate her did her father realize she had actually won it.
As a young girl, she sang on The Children’s Hour, a radio program sponsored by Horn & Hardart, an automat chain. As a preteen, Kallen had a radio program on Philadelphia’s WCAU and sang with the big bands of Jan Savitt in 1936, Artie Shaw in 1938, and Jack Teagarden in 1939. At twenty she sang the vocals for Moonlight Becomes You with Bobby Sherwood and His Orchestra at the second ever session for what was then still called Liberty Records but would soon be renamed Capitol Records. It was her only session for the label.
She joined the Jimmy Dorsey band when she was twenty-one replacing Helen O’Connell. Her recording with Dorsey, They’re Either Too Young or Too Old, was a favorite of American servicemen. She followed this with Dorsey’s #1 hit Besame Mucho. Singing duets with Bob Eberly, when he left to go into the service in 1943, she joined Harry James’s band.
With James she went on to have many hits in the top twenty with two hitting #1. In 1954 she was voted the most popular female singer in Billboard and Variety polls. She followed up with the song, In the Chapel in the Moonlight, which was another million seller. Kittty performed live at numerous prominent venues, as well as popular television shows like the Tonight Show, American Banstand and The Big Beat.
Her final album was Quiet Nights, a bossa nova–flavored release for 20th Century Fox Records. Subsequently, she retired owing to a lung ailment. On February 8, 1960, Kallen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame A compilation of her hits on various labels remains available on the Sony CD set The Kitty Kallen Story. Vocalist Kitty Kallen passed away on January 7, 2016.
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