Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Benny Strickler was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas on January 9, 1917 and took music lessons as a pre-teen and later played in a town band. After graduating high school, he became a professional musician and played with several territory bands in Arkansas and the Southwest. In 1935, with wife Frances in tow, he joined the migration from the Dust Bowl to the Golden State.
Benny established himself as one of the top trumpeters in Los Angeles, California. He played with bands led by Ben Pollack, Joe Venuti, Vido Musso and boxing champ/string bassist Max Baer. He even got an invitation from Artie Shaw, which he turned down.
He recorded his first recordings in 1937 with the Choir of Brass led by vocalist/pianist Seger Ellis. In 1941 he went to work with Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys and along with Danny Alguire and Alex Brashear and reedman Woodie Woods they shaped the swinging sound of the band between 1941-42. World War II broke them up with some enlisting, others drafted, however, Benny was exempted due to tuberculosis.
His illness worsened and was ultimately forced to quit playing. He returned to Arkansas, checking into a Booneville sanitarium. Trumpeter Benny Strickler, who played with the top Western Swing and Traditional bands, played sporadically until he succumbed to the tuberulosis and died on December 8, 1946.
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EUGENIE JONES
Jazz vocalist, songwriter, and producer Eugenie Jones has written original straight-ahead, swing, and soul-infused jazz lyrics and melodies.
Her recordings include four independently produced albums recorded on her label Open Mic Records. They are Black Lace Blue Tears, Come Out Swingin’, Players, The Originals, and the single One More Night to Burn.
The Quartet: Marcus Persiani~Piano, Lonnie Plaxico~Bass, Tommy Campbell~Drums, and Band Leader Eugenie Jones~Vocals
Tickets: $35.00 Each Set | Two Sets 8:00pm & 9:30pm
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pamela Wise was born on January 8, 1956 in Steubenville, Ohio. She began composing and playing piano by ear at age five and started lessosn at nine. After studying the basics she began playing for her church choir, directed by her bassist father. While in high school she formed Ohio Movement, a r&b group performing throughout the Midwest and East Coast. Eight years later she left the band and moved to Cleveland, Ohio with her brother and entered Cuyahoga Community College to further study music.
A move to Detroit, Michigan with her brother led her to play with several r&b groups in the Detroit area, meeting her future husband Wendell Harrison and eventually composing and performing for Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Leon Thomas and Eddie Harris. In 1989 she formed a group that enlisted James Carter, Dwight Adams, Jaribu Shahid, Ali Muhammad and Andrew Daniels.
Pamela has collaborated with Regina Carter, Akua Dixon Turre, and with Jerry Gonzalez produced her cd Songo Festividad. She went on to release A New Message From The Tribe, Kindred Spirits, Negre Con Leche, and Pamela’s Club projects.
Composer, pianist and music director Pamela Wise continues to perform, record, collaborate and educate.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jon Larsen was born on January 7, 1959 in Bærum, Norway and when he was in his early teens he learned rock and soul songs on an acoustic steel-string guitar. Through friends, he learned about blues, jazz, flamenco, and classical guitar. After he heard Tears by Django Reinhardt on the radio, he decided that this is how he wanted his guitar to sound. At seventeen he formed a string trio and had his first professional job.
The 1970s Jon worked mainly as a painter until 1980 when he started the Hot Club de Norvege with guitarists Per Frydenlund and bassist Svein Aarbostad. They had a hit record when they performed with pop singer Lillebjørn Nilsen. He has worked with Chet Baker, Philip Catherine, Stéphane Grappelli, Warne Marsh, Biréli Lagrène, Babik Reinhardt and Jimmy Rosenberg. He has produced more than 450 jazz records for the label he founded, Hot Club Records.
He has led a group of musicians who played with Zappa and started the label Zonic Entertainment to record musicians who played with him .including Arthur Barrow, Jimmy Carl Black, Bruce Fowler, Bunk Gardner, Tommy Mars, and Don Preston.
A documentary Symphonic Django was released in 2008 about Larsen and guitar virtuoso Jimmy Rosenberg titled Jon & Jimmy, and appeared in the documentary film Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds In 2012.
Gypsy jazz guitarist, record producer, painter, and amateur scientific researcher Jon Larsen, who founded the group Hot Club de Norvège and received the Buddy Award for his lifelong contribution to jazz, continues to perform, record and produce.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Stark was born on January 6, 1906 in New York City and started playing music at age 15. He played piano, clarinet, saxophone, and alto horn before deciding on trumpet. In the mid-1920s he played with June Clark, Edgar Dowell, Leon Abbey, Duncan Mayers, Bobbie Brown, Bobby Lee, Billy Butler, Charles Turner, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, and Chick Webb, the last in 1926-27.
From 1927 to 1933, he played in the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra as a featured soloist. He returned to duty under Chick Webb behind Taft Jordan from 1934 to 1939. After Webb’s death, he remained in the orchestra, now under the direction of Ella Fitzgerald.
In 1940, he left the group to freelance, however, from 1942 to 1943 he served in the Army. Discharged in 1944 he then played with Garvin Bushell and Benny Morton shortly before his death.
Trumpeter Bobby Stark, who never led a recording session, transitioned on December 29, 1945 in New York City at the age of 39.
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