Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edward Louis Smith was born on May 20, 1931 in Memphis, Tennessee. After graduating from Tennessee State University he attended graduate school at the University of Michigan. While studying at the University of Michigan, he played with visiting musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thad Jones and Billy Mitchell.
He went on to play with Sonny Stitt, Count Basie, Al McKibbon, Cannonball Adderley, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, Lou Donaldson, Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham and Zoot Sims. Deciding to forgo being a full-time musician to take a job as a director of Atlanta’s Booker T. Washington High School, where he recorded two albums for Blue Note.
The first, Here Comes Louis Smith, originally recorded for the Boston-based Transition Records, featured Cannonball Adderley, then under contract to Mercury, played under the pseudonym Buckshot La Funke, Tommy Flanagan, Duke Jordan, Art Taylor and Doug Watkins. Replacing Donald Byrd for Horace Silver’s Live at the Newport 1958 set, and his playing was one of his best efforts and was described by one critic as monstrous.
He was a prolific composer and successful band director leaving Booker T. Washington to become director of the Jazz Ensemble at the University of Michigan and a teacher in Ann Arbor’s public school system. He would later record for the SteepleChase label.
Suffering a stroke in 2006, he enjoyed live jazz around the Detroit/Ann Arbor area, but did not return to performing. Trumpeter Louis Smith passed away on August 20, 2016 at age 85.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gregory Herbert was born on May 19, 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and started on alto saxophone at age 12. In 1964 he did a short stint in the Duke Ellington Orchestra, then studied at Temple University from 1965 to 1971.
While a student Gregory recorded with Pat Martino in 1968. From 1971 to 1975 he toured with Woody Herman, then played with Harold Danko in 1975 and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra from 1975 to 1977.
After his tenure with the orchestra, he played briefly with Chuck Israels and Blood, Sweat and Tears. Additionally, Herbert appeared on Chet Baker’s Once Upon a Summertime in 1977 along with Harold Danko, Ron Carter and Mel Lewis.
Saxophonist and flautist Gregory Herbert passed away from a heroin overdose on January 31, 1978 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He never recorded as a leader.
Three Wishes
When Henry Grimes was asked what he would wish for if he had three wishes by Pannonica, he told her:
- “Health. If I had the health, I could do anything else.”
- “The second would be money. Not a large sum of money, but just a constant flow of money to keep me in comfort the rest of my life.”
- “Everlasting peace and everlasting good will amongst everyone. So there’ll be no wars, and no excuse to drop that H~bomb, and all that sh*t. So I’ll live in peace, and spend all that money in peace.”
*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…
Born May 18, 1894 in North Buxton, Ontario, Canada, Louis Stanley Hooper was raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He attended the Detroit Conservatory, where he played locally in dance orchestras in the 1910s. He then moved to New York City around 1920, recorded with Elmer Snowden and Bob Fuller frequently in the middle of the decade, and performed with both of them in Harlem as well as with other ensembles.
Hooper served for some time as the house pianist for Ajax Records and accompanied many blues singers on record, including Martha Copeland, Rosa Henderson, Lizzie Miles, Monette Moore, and Ethel Waters. He participated in the Blackbirds Revue of 1928.
In 1932 returning to Canada he played in Mynie Sutton’s dance band, the Canadian Ambassadors. Lou did local work solo and in ensembles for the next two decades, then was brought back into the limelight by the Montreal Vintage Music Society in 1962. He released an LP of ragtime piano tunes in 1973 entitled Lou Hooper, Piano.
As an educator he taught at the University of Prince Edward Island late in his life and appeared regularly on CBC television in Halifax. His papers, which include unpublished compositions and an autobiography, are now held at the National Library of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. Pianist Lou Hooper passed away on September 17, 1977, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Izenzon was born on May 17, 1932 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Graduating from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, he later received a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music.
Izenzon began playing double bass at the age of twenty-four and played in his hometown before moving to New York City in 1961. There he played with Paul Bley, Archie Shepp, Sonny Rollins, and Bill Dixon, but he is best known for his association with Ornette Coleman, which began in October 1961. He played in Coleman’s 1962 Town Hall concert and played with him frequently from 1965 to 1968, often in a trio format with Charles Moffett.
During this time Izenzon also recorded with Harold McNair and Yoko Ono. He taught music history at Bronx Community College from 1968 to 1971 and played with Perry Robinson and Paul Motian, but reduced his time in music in 1972 when his son became ill. In 1973 Izenzon received a Ph.D. in psychotherapy from Northwestern University. The following year, he co-founded Potsmokers Anonymous with his wife, Pearl.
In 1975 he composed a jazz opera titled How Music Can Save The World, dedicated to those who helped his son recover. From 1977 he worked again with Coleman and Motian up until his death. Double bassist David Izenzon passed away on October 8, 1979 of a heart attack, arriving dead on arrival at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.
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