Conversations About Jazz & Other Distractions

Conversations About Jazz Presents 

Rubin & Dameron: A Perfect Match on February 25

On Thursday, February 25 at 7:30 pm (EST) Hammonds House Digital invites you to join us for Conversations About Jazz & Other Distractions with host Carl Anthony. Carl’s special guest will be jazz vocalist Vanessa Rubin and they will discuss her career, sample some of her favorite songs, and delve into her latest CD, This Dream is You: Vanessa Rubin Sings Tadd Dameron. This free virtual program will stream on Hammonds House  Museum’s Facebook and YouTube channels. For more information about this and upcoming virtual events visit hammondshouse.org.

Revered as both a torchbearer and a storyteller, jazz vocalist Vanessa Rubin possesses a voice hailed for crystalline clarity, warmth, and playful sass. The Cleveland native brings a wealth of diverse influences to her vocal performance from both the Trinidadian/Caribbean roots of her mother and traditional jazz by way of her Louisiana-born father. Additional influences include the melodic bell tone clarity of a young Nancy Wilson, the fire of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, the sweet sounds of trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and her love of the Motown Sound…especially girl groups like the Supremes.

Rubin’s passion for rich musical stories is evident throughout her eight albums. Highlights include the evocative “Voyager II” from the pen of Teri Thornton, “Inside a Silent Tear” written by Blossom Dearie, a waltz version of John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” lyricized by New York Voices, and an arrangement of “Superwoman” by Stevie Wonder, inspired by the Ahmad Jamal recording of “Poinciana.” Her current endeavors include highlighting and interpreting well known, obscure and new lyrical works of composer/arranger/pianist Tadd Dameron. “I hope to do for Tadd’s music what Carmen McRae did for Monk’s music,” Rubin explained. For more information visit: vanessarubin.com.

Tadd Dameron (1917-1965) was American jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. The most influential arranger of the bebop era, he also wrote charts for swing and hard bop players. The bands he arranged for included those of Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, and Sarah Vaughan. In 1940-41 he was the piano player and arranger for the Kansas City band Harlan Leonard and his Rockets. He and lyricist Carl Sigman wrote “If You Could See Me Now” in 1946 for Sarah Vaughan and it became one of her first signature songs. Dameron wrote many arrangements for Gillespie’s big band, who gave the première of his large-scale orchestral piece Soulphony in Three Hearts at Carnegie Hall in 1948. Later in 1948, Dameron led his own group in New York, which included Fats Navarro. The following year Dameron performed at the Paris Jazz Festival with Miles Davis.

Hammonds House Museum is generously supported by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Fulton County Arts and Culture, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, The National Performance Network, AT&T and WarnerMedia.

Hammonds House Museum’s mission is to celebrate and share the cultural diversity and important legacy of artists of African descent. The museum is the former residence of the late Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds, a prominent Atlanta physician and a passionate arts patron. A 501(c)3 organization which opened in 1988, Hammonds House Museum boasts a permanent collection of more than 450 works including art by Romare Bearden, Robert S. Duncanson, Benny Andrews, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Hale Woodruff, Amalia Amaki, Radcliffe Bailey and Kojo Griffin. In addition to featuring art from their collection, the museum offers new exhibitions, artist talks, workshops, concerts, poetry readings, arts education programs, and other cultural events throughout the year.

Located in a beautiful Victorian home in Atlanta’s historic West End, Hammonds House Museum is a cultural treasure and a unique venue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they continue to observe CDC guidelines, but look forward to welcoming in-person visitors soon!  For more information about upcoming virtual events, and to see how you can support their mission and programming, visit their website: hammondshouse.org.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ray Perry was born on February 25, 1915 in Boston, Massachusetts to a musical family and began playing the violin at a young age, and didn’t pick up the alto saxophone till he was twenty. He organized his first band, the Arabian Knights, in 1932.

Working the bread and butter gigs, he performed with the best in the business from 1935 to 1943, among numerous others, Dean Earl in the Little Harlem Orchestra, Clarence “Chick” Carter Orchestra with Gerald Wilson, then with Joe Nevils band when it masqueraded as the Blanche Calloway Orchestra, before joining the Lionel Hampton band. In the mid-thirties Ray developed a technique of simultaneously singing an octave below his playing as he bowed his violin. Hearing him, bassist Slam Stewart adopted the same technique, except he sang an octave above his playing.

Poor health forced him to return to Boston in late 1942, where he found work with Sherman Freeman, Sabby Lewis, and his fraternal band, the Perry Brothers Orchestra with Joe on tenor saxophonoe and Bey on drums, Performing more frequently on alto saxophone, despite his short career, Perry worked with Shadow Wilson, Illinois Jacquet Vernon Alley, J. C. Heard, Joe Newman, Fred Beckett, Sabby Lewis, Sir Charles Thompson, and Irving Ashby.

Health problems continued to dog him for almost a decade leading to the passing away of violinist and alto saxophonist Ray Perry from kidney disease at age 35 in November 1950 in New York City. However, his final record date was with Illinois Jacquet earlier that year. Some of his best surviving violin work was recorded with a Hampton septet in late 1940.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Richard Bently Boone was born on February 24, 1930 in Little Rock, Arkansas and began singing in a Baptist church choir as a boy. By age twwelve he was playing the trombone. He went on to serve in the U.S. Army from 1948 to 1953 where he played trombone in a military band. Following his discharge from the Army, he returned to Little Rock to study music at Philander Smith College.

In 1956 Boone moved to Los Angeles, California where he played with Dolo Coker, Sonny Criss, and Dexter Gordon. Working in the backup band for Della Reese between 1962 and 1966, he then became a member of the Count Basie band. A few years later he left Basie and emigrated to Copenhagen, Denmark and mking it his home, performed with the Ernie Wilkins Big Band.

Trombonist and scat singer Richard Boone passed away in Copenhagen on February 8, 1999.

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Three Wishes

The inquiry of three wishes came from the Baroness to Paul Bley who told her:   

1. “To never hear another chord!”
2. “To be driven home to Fourteenth Street and Eighth Avenue. Thank you very much! I’ll tell you my other wish next time I see you.”
3. “To have God on your side.”

*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…

Sterling Belmont “Bozo” Bose was born on September 23, 1906 in Florence, Alabama and his style was heavily influenced by Bix Beiderbecke and changed little over the course of his life.

His early experience came with Dixieland jazz bands in his native Alabama before moving to St. Louis, Missouri in 1923. He played with the Crescent City Jazzers, the Arcadian Serenaders, and the Jean Goldkette’s Orchestra in 1927-28 after the departure of Beiderbecke. Following this he worked in the house band at radio station WGN in Chicago, Illinois before joining Ben Pollack from 1930 to 1933. He also worked with Eddie Sheasby in Chicago.

Moving to New York City in 1933, Bose had many gigs in the city during the 1930s to the mid 1940s, including time with Joe Haymes, Tommy Dorsey, Ray Noble, Benny Goodman, Lana Webster, Glenn Miller, Bob Crosby, Bobby Hackett, Bob Zurke, Jack Teagarden, Bud Freeman, George Brunies, Bobby Sherwood, Miff Mole, Art Hodes, Horace Heidt, and ending with Tiny Hill in 1946.

Following this period he did some further freelancing for the next two years in Chicago and New York, and finally moved to Florida in 1948, setting up his own bands there. Suffering from an extended period of illness in the 1950s, trumpeter and cornetist Sterling Bose, whose nickname was Bozo, eventually committed suicide in June of 1958. in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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