The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

The Jazz Voyager has been combing the stacks of music in his library for the right album and has selected For Swingers Only by vocalist Lorez Alexandria that was released by the Argo label in 1963.

A stylized, disciplined, soulful, and satisfying session, the recording of this album took place over two days on January 2 & 3, 1963 at Ter Mar Recording Studios in Chicago, Illinois. The session was produced by Esmond Edwards.

1. Baltimore Oriole (Hoagy Carmichael, Paul Francis Webster) ~ 3:11
2. Little Girl Blue (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) ~ 3:34
3. All or Nothing at All (Arthur Altman, Jack Lawrence) ~ 4:55
4. Traveling Down a Lonely Road (Nino Rota, Michele Galdieri, Don Raye) ~ 3:45
5. Mother Earth (Peter Chatman) ~ 3:03
6. Love Look Away (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) ~ 3:49
7. The End of a Love Affair (Edward C. Redding) ~ 2:49
8. That Old Devil Called Love (Alan Roberts, Doris Fisher) ~ 3:54

• Lorez Alexandria – vocals
• Ronald Wilson – tenor saxophone, flute
• John Young – piano, arranger
• George Eskridge – guitar
• Jimmy Garrison – bass
• Phil Thomas – drums

• Cover Design ~ Don Bronstein
• Cover Photography ~ Roger Marshutz
• Engineer ~ Eddie Rio
• Liner Notes ~ Leonard Feather

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

John Calvin Jackson was born May 26, 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a concert singer mother. He played piano from childhood, taking lessons with a private teacher. He went on to study at Juilliard and New York University.

At the beginning of his career Jackson worked with Frankie Fairfax. Moving to Los Angeles, California from 1943–47 he worked in Hollywood as an assistant director of music for MGM on productions including Meet Me in St. Louis and Anchors Aweigh.

1947 saw Calvin recording with Phil Moore and also as a solo pianist for Discovery Records. The following summer he played with singer Mildred Bailey and dancer Avon Long at Café Society in New York City. In 1950, he moved to Toronto, Canada where he often played on television and radio. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s he released several LPs for labels such as Columbia Records.

Returning to Los Angeles in 1957 he resumed work as a composer and orchestrator for television and hit musicals like Where The Boys Are and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, which was Oscar-nominated for best adapted score. Occasionally he could be seen on screen as a piano-playing character.

Jackson arranged for Ray Charles at one point, receiving an arrangement and co-producer credit for Charles’ 1964 release Sweet & Sour Tears . By the early 1980s, he moved to San Diego County, where he lived in semi-retirement where he gave music lessons on a piano in his apartment. In 1984 he sat in as a guest at the Sunday night jam sessions Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham hosted at the Bahia resort on Mission Bay, playing piano and harmonica between sets and occasionally with the band.

He was working on arrangements for a 31-piece concert jazz orchestra in Point Loma when he developed a heart ailment and was taken to the hospital. Pianist, composer, and bandleader Calvin Jackson transitioned on December 9, 1985 at age 66.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Buddy Petit was born Joseph Crawford on May 25, 1897 in White Castle, Louisiana. His early life is somewhat mysterious but he was adopted by trombonist Joseph Petit, whose name he took.

Taking Freddie Keppard’s place in the Eagle Band, a place earlier held by Buddy Bolden, when Keppard left town. Briefly lured to Los Angeles, California by Jelly Roll Morton and Bill Johnson in 1917, but objecting to being told how to dress and behave differently from what he was accustomed to he returned to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Buddy spent the rest of his career in the area around greater New Orleans and the towns north of Lake Pontchartrain, not venturing further from home than Baton Rouge and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Okeh Records offered him a chance to record on their 1925 field trip to New Orleans, but Petit held out for more money and was never recorded. Danny Barker and Louis Armstrong said that it was a great loss to jazz history that there are no recordings of Petit.

After over-indulging in food and drink, cornetist Buddy Petit, which was sometimes spelled Buddie, transitioned on July 4, 1931.

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Three Wishes

What Johnny Mathis responded to the question posed by Baroness Pannonica was one word answers as to his three wishes: 

1. 1. “Love.”

   2. “Kindness.”

   3. “Tactfulness.

*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…

Sylvester Ahola was born on May 24, 1902 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. His parents, Sophia and John Ahola, were born in Finland. He became most popular in England rather than the United States.

He first began performing with Frank Ward and His Orchestra. In 1925 he started playing with Paul Specht and His Orchestra, with whom he did a two-month-long tour of England that following year. For the next couple of years he performed with bands like The California Ramblers and Adrian Rollini and his band.

1927 saw Ahola moving to England and landing a job playing with the Savoy Orpheans. He went on to gig with Bert Firman and Bert Ambrose. The British Musicians’ Union, unhappy to see a foreigner land so many jobs and attain so much success, effectively prohibited him from playing with anyone other than Bert Ambrose. This forced him to eventually leave in 1931 and return to New York City.

Throughout the rest of his career he never again achieved the level of success he had enjoyed during his time in England. Trumpeter and cornetist Sylvester Ahola, also known as Hooley, transitioned on February 13, 1995.

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