Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Albert Aloysius Casey was born September 15, 1915 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was a child prodigy who first played violin, then switched to ukulele. He began playing guitar in 1930 and attended DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City where he studied guitar. He met Fats Waller in 1933 and the following year, at eighteen, he became a member of Waller’s band.

Making several recordings with the band, he is known for having played the solo in Buck Jumpin’. After Waller’s death in 1943, he led his own trio and for two consecutive years in the 1940s, he was voted best guitarist in Esquire magazine.

From 1957, he was a member of a rhythm and blues band led by King Curtis. Four years later he dropped out of music, though he returned in the 1970s to record with Helen Humes and Jay McShann. Another absence followed until 1981, when he returned to music to play with the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band.

During his career, Casey worked with Louis Armstrong, Chu Berry, Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Billy Kyle, Frankie Newton, Clarence Profit, Art Tatum, and Teddy Wilson.

Guitarist Albert Casey died of colon cancer on September 11, 2005, four days shy of his 80th birthday.

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JACQUES LESURE TRIO

The guitarist takes to the stage bringing special friends with him for an evening of great jazz. Coming out of Detroit the jazz guitarist is a recording artist is signed to WJ3 Records.

He has performed with several jazz artists, such as Jimmy Smith and Stanley Turrentine as well as Wynton Marsalis, Eric Reed, Warren Wolf and Gregory Porter.His performances can be heard in La La Land, the Academy Award winning movie.

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Requisites

Stablemates ~ Jon Eardley and Al Haig | By Eddie Carter

You really know your godchildren truly care and love you when they surprise you for your birthday with an album by two artists whose music you’re aware of, yet whose records have never found a place in your library. This morning’s spotlight shines on flugelhorn and trumpet player Jon Eardley, who was passing through London on a brief 1977 tour and pianist Al Haig, who was in town to visit friends. The two musicians seized the moment to head into the studio to record their only album together, Stablemates (Spotlite Records SPJ LP11). It was released two years later, and rounding out the ensemble are Art Themen on tenor sax, Daryl Runswick on bass, and Alan Ganley on drums. My copy of this album is the 1979 U.K. stereo release.

The first side opener, Tangerine by Johnny Mercer and Victor Schertzinger, begins with Al’s upbeat piano intro to Jon’s lively melody. Art kicks off the opening solo briskly, then Al flows smoothly into the following reading. Jon entersnext with a strong, assertive tone. Art and Jon share a final conversation leading back to the theme’s reprise and close. Speak Low by Ogden Nash and Kurt Weill raises the temperature with the quintet’s swinging melody. Themen opens the solos with an inspired improvisation that sets the tone. Eardley follows with plenty of bounce and effervescence on the second statement. Themen is off to the races next with impeccable precision, then Runswick and Ganley engage in a spirited exchange until the theme’s restatement fades out.

‘Round Midnight by Bernie Hanighen, Thelonious Monk and Cootie Williams is a quartet showcase that opens with Al and Daryl’s pensive introduction ahead of Jon’s tender melody. Al begins the opening solo with dreamlike softness, then the pace moves upward slightly for Jon’s elegant interpretation before the ensemble’s gentle ending. The second side gets underway with the pianist’s soothing introduction to Embraceable You by George and Ira Gershwin. Eardley states the gentle melody with Themen. In the first solo, Haig offers a tender, thoughtful statement with a soft touch of elegant beauty. Eardley truly shines in the closing reading with notes so deeply heartfelt that it’s bound to move you to tears, leading to Themen’s closing chorus and a gentle climax.

Don’t Blame Me by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh receives a gorgeous treatment by the quintet, beginning with Jon’s slow-paced theme that radiates inviting warmth, and Art’s perfectly placed inserts. Al leads off, skillfully blending composure and gentleness, before Art continues this lovely standard with a solo that truly touches the spirit. Jon delivers an exquisitely soft, poignant horn passage preceding the theme’s return. The beat moves upward on final time for Eardley’s theme to Love Walked In by George and Ira Gershwin. Themen opens the solos with an energetic drive, then Haig contributes a robust interpretation. Eardley matches the intensity with swift execution, and Ganley and Runswick meet on common ground in the closer, leading to the theme’s reprise and climax.

Tony Williams produced the album, and Steve Waldman served as the recording engineer. It delivers an exceptional soundstage, as though the ensemble is performing live in your listening room. The mix is impressively balanced, offering remarkable clarity and fidelity from your speakers. Stablemates is one of six albums Jon Eardley led as a leader, and he contributed as a sideman on ten additional records. Al Haig, meanwhile, led twenty-five albums and played as a sideman on eight more. If you haven’t yet experienced the artistry of Jon Eardley or Al Haig, I highly encourage you to seek out Stablemates on your next search for great jazz records. This outstanding album invites fresh appreciation with each play and remains as relevant today as it was over forty years ago!

~ Don’t Blame Me, Embraceable You, Love Walked In, ‘Round Midnight, Speak Low, Tangerine – Source: JazzStandards.com

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Eddie Moore was born in Houston, Texas on September 14, 1940 and began his musical journey at Texas Southern University where he earned a Bachelors in Arts and immersed himself in the Houston music scene.  He relocated  to Kansas City, studied under Bobby Watson at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and received a M.A in Jazz Studies.

He formed a jazz fusion group Eddie Moore & The Outer Circle in 2012, with diversity and inclusiveness defining him as an artist. His debut album, The Freedom of Expression, was released in 2013. With a performing and visual arts curator he created an experimental platform in partnership with Charlotte Street that pairs time-based artists, producers and musicians.

Eddie has received awards and a 2017 residency at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. He has composed music that has been featured commercially for Sprint,  Netflix’s Queer Eye,  Morgan Cooper’s short film Room Tone, and Peacock’s Bel-Air.

He has shared the stage and recorded with Tia Fuller, Pam Watson, Logan Richardson, Maurice Brown, Boys II Men, Brian Blade and the Fellowship, John Baptiste, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Bilal, Ledisi, Chantae Cann, Krystal Warren,  Andre Hayward, Tivon Pennicott,  and Various Blonde.

As an educator his passion for teaching sent him on a course as a jazz lecturer at the  University of Kansas, created a pilot Incubator,  Tribe Studios, which programs master classes, music business meet-ups, and provides creative/maker space for musicians and visual artists.

Pianist and bandleader Eddie Moore is an integral member of the music community in Kansas City, as well as an advocate for change and resources for professional artists.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bernard Etté was born on September 13, 1898 in Kassel, Germany. The son of a hairdresser, he studied music formally at the Louis Spohr Conservatory in Kassel. He initially worked with Carl Robrecht as an instrumentalist, playing piano and banjo in addition to violin.

In the early 1920s he assembled his own ensemble, and took up a residency in Berlin, Germany and performed on radio. The group also recorded in the 1920s, often with traveling American musicians. During the 1930s, as the Nazi party rose to power, Etté shifted away from jazz to light music, and led a large orchestra during World War II.

He played for wounded soldiers on behalf of the Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt in 1940 and for prison overseers at Auschwitz in 1944. After the war, he moved to the United States but was unsuccessful in adapting to new stylistic trends when he attempted a new career.

Returning to Germany, he led bands for luxury retreats in the East Frisian Islands and schlager and operetta backing bands in central Germany. By the end of the 1950s he quit actively playing music, and lived out his last years in an old folk’s home.

Bernard Etté, jazz and light music violinist and conductor died on September 26, 1973 in Mühldorf, Bavaria, Germany.

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