Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carl Alrich Stanley Barriteau was born on February 7, 1914 in Trinidad, but was raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela. He played tenor horn in Trinidad from 1926 to 1932, before playing the clarinet in a local police band from 1933 to 1936. At the same time, he also played in Port of Spain with the Jazz Hounds and the Williams Brothers Blue Rhythm Orchestra.
Moving to London, England where he played in Ken Johnson’s West Indian Swing Band. Melody Maker named him “best clarinetist” for seven consecutive years. In the 1940s Carl led his own group on recordings for Decca Records.
He did several USO tours for American troops from 1958 to 1966. He emigrated to Australia in 1970. Clarinetist Carl Barriteau passed away on August 24, 1998, in Sydney, Australia.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nelson Boyd was born on February 6, 1928 in Camden, New Jersey. He played in local orchestras in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 1945, and then moved to New York City in 1947.
While living there Boyd first performed with Coleman Hawkins, Tadd Dameron, and Dexter Gordon. He would go on to play with Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Barnet in 1948. In 1947, he recorded with Fats Navarro and Charlie Parker. He later played with Jay Jay Johnson and recorded with Miles Davis on Davis’s Birth of the Cool sessions in 1949. In addition, Davis’s song “Half Nelson” was named after Boyd because of his stature.
After 1949, Nelson often played with Gillespie and toured the Middle East with him in 1956. Later, he recorded with Melba Liston in 1958 with her trombone ultimates on Melba Liston and Her ‘Bones. He also did sessions with Max Roach and Thelonious Monk.
He recorded four albums with Gillespie, and one each with Milt Jackson, Charles McPherson, Max Roach, and Sonny Stitt, Bud Powell, and J. J. Johnson. Bebop bassist Nelson Boyd, whose last recordings were in 1964, passed away in October 1985.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wyatt Robert Ruther was born on February 5, 1923 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Playing trombone in high school before picking up the double-bass, he studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Pittsburgh Musical Institute.
From 1951 to 1952 he played in New York City with Dave Brubeck and Erroll Garner from 1951-55. A sought after bassist Wyatt toured with Lena Horne in 1953 and recorded an album under his own name alongside Milt Hinton in 1955 for RCA Records entitled Basses Loaded. Following this he played with Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1956, then studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada.
While in Canada he played with the Canadian Jazz Quartet for two years beginning in 1956 and then in 1957 with Peter Appleyard. During the same period back in the States, Ruther played with Ray Bryant, Zoot Sims, Bob Brookmeyer, and Chico Hamilton. From the end of the Fifties to the mid~Sixties he toured with George Shearing, went on a world tour with Buddy Rich, played in Gerry Mulligan’s quartet, then joined Count Basie.
In the late 1960s, Wyatt worked freelance in the San Francisco area, and played at the Olympic Hotel in Seattle, Washington in the early Seventies. Moving to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada he played with Fraser MacPherson from 1975 to 1979. He went on to play at the Ankor Hotel in Vancouver in the early 1980s, and while there worked with Sammy Price, Jay McShann, and Dorothy Donegan. Returning to San Francisco in 1984, he played with Stan Getz, Lou Stein, John Handy, Benny Carter, and Jerome Richardson late into thedecade and early Nineties. Bassist Wyatt Ruther played until he passed away of a heart attack at age 76 on October 31, 1999 in San Francisco, California.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
OPEN ON ALL SIDES IN THE MIDDLE
Having settled into a routine over the past year of wearing masks and social distancing life is so much easier for this jazz voyager. So continuing my uninterrupted time to kick back, relax and listen to music, I have selected the album Open On All Sides In The Middle, the 1986 recording by pianist Geri Allen. The recording session was in December 1986 at Sound Suite Recording Studio in Detroit, Michigan. The album was produced by Allen, who also composed all the songs, and released on the German Minor Music label.
Track List | 43:47
- “Open on All Sides / The Glide Was in the Ride…” – 6:45
- “Forbidden Place” – 4:24
- “The Dancer” – 2:33
- “In the Middle” – 4:01
- “Ray” – 4:17
- “I Sang a Bright Green Tear for All of Us This Year…” – 12:46
- “Drummer’s Song” – 2:24
- “In the Morning” – 5:03
- “The Dancer Part 2” 1:34
The Players
- Geri Allen – piano, keyboards, backing vocals
- Rayse Biggs – trumpet, flugelhorn
- Robin Eubanks – trombone
- David McMurray – soprano saxophone, flute
- Steve Coleman – alto saxophone
- Jaribu Shahid – bass
- Tani Tabbal – drums
- Shahida Nurullah – lead vocals
- Marcus Belgrave – flugelhorn (track 8)
- Mino Cinelu – cymbals, bells, congas, timbales, electronic drums, udu
- Lloyd Storey – tap dance
This pandemic is here for the long haul. In the meantime, stay vigilant, wear masks and remain healthy and we’ll all be jet setting sooner than we think.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harold Andrew Dejan was born on February 4, 1909 into a Creole family in New Orleans, Louisiana and took clarinet lessons as a child before switching to the saxophone. He became a professional musician in his teens, joining the Olympia Serenaders and then the Holy Ghost Brass Band.
He played regularly in Storyville, at Mahogany Hall, and on Mississippi riverboats. He also worked in the mail office of the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company for 23 years. In World War II, he played in Navy bands, then returning to his day job and his parallel musical career after the war, he led his own band, Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band, from 1951, was considered one of the top bands in New Orleans.
The band often appeared at Preservation Hall, recorded nine albums, and also toured internationally, making 30 concert tours of Europe and one of Africa. It was featured in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die, and as well as in many TV commercials.
Suffering a stroke in 1991 left him unable to play the saxophone, but he continued as a band leader and singer until shortly before his death. Alto saxophonist and bandleader Harold Dejan, known affectionately as Duke, passed away on July 5, 2002 in New Orleans.
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