Daily Dose Of Jaz…

Zalman “Porky” Cohen was born on June 2, 1924 in Springfield, Massachusetts and began performing publicly in his mid-teens, and studied with trombonist Miff Mole. By 19 he was playing with the Charlie Barnet Orchestra, often featured as a soloist.  Stints with Tony Pastor and Glen Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra followed, and in 1948 during the segregation era in the jazz and blues worlds, he was one of a few white musicians to perform with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra.

Porky married, settled down and limited his performing career to local gigs in Rhode Island and southeastern New England. He did, however, join the Grammy winning jump-blues band Roomful Of Blues from 1981 to 1987, touring all over the U.S. and Europe. During this phase of his career, he recorded with jump-blues greats Big Joe Turner, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Jimmy Witherspoon and Earl King.

Having had enough of the rigors of constant touring, in 1987 he returned to Providence, Rhode Island and again played with various area bands. He continued performing until increasitg ill-health sidelined him Trombonist Porky Cohen died of complications resulting from a stroke on April 14, 2004 at age 79 in Providence.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Hilaria Kramer was born on June 1, 1967 in Frauenfeld, Switzerland and began playing the trumpet when she was ten years old. Beginning in 1983 she attended the vocational school department of Jazz School St. Gallen, where she studied under Benny Bailey and Art Lande.

After graduating she went on to work in Italy with the Claudio Fasoli Quintet, with Gianluigi Trovesi. She performed with Steve Lacy, Enrico Rava, Joe Henderson, Bob Mover, Sal Nistico, Chet Baker and Sangoma Everett. 1988 saw her recording her debut album leading her own quartet. The album was released in the spring of the following year on Unit Records.

1991 had Hilaria performing on the TV program Ladies in Jazz with singers Nina Simone and Carmen McRae. Over the next few years, she performed with Uli Scherer in Vienna and also toured around Europe.

In 2014, Kramer was awarded the Jazz Prize of the Fondation Suisa for her services as a musician, composer and band leader as well as her work in various organizations that support Swiss jazz.

Trumpeter and composer Hilaria Kramer, who has a discography of eighteen albums as a leader and sidewoman, continues to record, perform and tour.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz

Edgar Charles Thompson, known professionally as Eddie Thompson, was born blind on May 31, 1925 in London, England. After studying at the same school for the blind as George Shearing, he recorded with Victor Feldman in the late 1940s and also with the Carlo Krahmer Band at the Paris Jazz Fair in 1949.

By the 1950s he was working with Tony Crombie, making records with him under his own name, Vic Ash, Freddy Randall and Tommy Whittle. He was house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s from 1959 until 1960. Emigrating to  Manhattan, New York, from 1962 to 1972, he lived and worked at the Hickory House, a well-known jazz club on 52nd Street. He led his own trio featuring Len Skeat and Martin Drew, which recorded an album with Spike Robinson.

Thompson also formed a duo with Roger Kellaway. Thompson was considered to have been a dazzlingly inventive player during his early recording career. He recorded in the early 1980s by Hep Records,including Memories of You released in 1983.

During the 70s, Eddie returned to his homeland and regularly travelled up to Stockport on Fridays, with his dog. During the day he would perform piano tuning at Nield and Hardy’s, and played the Warren Buckley pub’s jazz cellar where Eddie played during the evening with two local musicians making up the trio. One notable evening Al Grey and Buddy Tate played a memorable session with Eddie’s trio.

Pianist Eddie Thompson, a lifelong smoking habit which caused him to develop emphysema, died on November 6, 1986 in London at the age of 61.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Benjamin David Goodman was born on May 30, 1909 in Chicago, Illinois and was the ninth of twelve children born to poor Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire. Growing up in the slums of the Maxwell Street neighborhood, his father would take him to free band concerts in a nearby park. When he was ten his father enrolled him and two of brothers in free music lessons at the synagogue, in addition he received lessons from clarinetist Franz Schoepp of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He went on to join a boy’s club band and by the time he turned thirteen he got his first union card,

He made his professional debut in 1921 at the Central Park Theater on the West Side of Chicago. He entered Harrison Technical High School in Chicago in 1922 and with card in tow Benny worked in a band featuring Bix Beiderbecke. Two years later, in 1926, he joined the Ben Pollack Orchestra and made his first recordings. Moving to New York City he became a session musician for radio, Broadway musicals, and in studios. In addition to clarinet, he sometimes played alto and baritone saxophones.

The Thirties saw him charting for the first time with He’s Not Worth Your Tears. He would go on to have top ten hits and from 1936 until the mid-1940s, with arrangements written during the Depression by Fletcher Henderson. Goodman hired Henderson’s musicians to teach his musicians how to play the music. He went on to lead one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His bands started the careers of many jazz musicians. During an era of racial segregation, he led one of the first integrated jazz groups, his trio and quartet.

Clarinetist Benny Goodman, while pursuing an interest in classical music, continued performing until the end of his life on June 13, 1986 in New York City.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Thornel Schwartz Jr. was born on May 29, 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the Landis Institute for piano, but became known as a jazz guitarist starting in the 1950s. He was Freddie Cole’s guitarist early in the decade, then worked with Jimmy Smith and Johnny Hammond Smith later in the decade.

The 1960s saw Schwartz recording with Larry Young, Jimmy Forrest, Charles Earland, Byrdie Green, Sylvia Syms and extensively with Jimmy McGriff. In the 1970s he recorded with Groove Holmes.

Though he is known as Thornel on recordings and standard jazz reference works, having recorded one album as a leader and twenty-six as a sideman, his name is spelled Thornal on his social security application, as is his father.

Electric guitarist Thornel Schwartz Jr., who played on the recordings of many Philadelphia jazz musicians, especially electronic organ players, died on December 30, 1977 in his hometown.

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