Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alan Gaumer was born on July 25, 1951 in Bethelehem, Pennsylvania. He began playing the trumpet when he was eight and was a member of Kal’s Kid’s that appeared on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour as well as numerous other television shows. Throughout elementary, junior and high school he participated in band, orchestra, and stage bands and graduated from Freedom High School in 1969.
He studied with John Nero and Willard Schissler and performed with the Allentown Band before attending the U.S. Navy School of Music. Upon graduation he spent the next three years living in Gaeta, Italy touring Europe, Africa and Asia with the Navy Show Band. Offered the jazz trumpet position at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis before his discharge, from 1973-75 he toured first as trumpeter and later as drummer with the well known group KATO.
Settling back in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania he was an integral part of a popular group P.F. & the Flyers and his own A.G.Q. After attending Rutgers University, Alan spent two years touring South America and West Africa with the U.S. Navy Show Band. When he got out in 1982, he worked for several years at well known hotels and resorts.
He has performed with a long list of jazz musicians which include Randy Brecker, Phil Woods, Al Cohn, George Young, Bob Dorough, Tom Harrell, Bill Watrous, Urbie Green, Kim Parker, Vic Jurris, Charles Fambrough, Bill Washer, John Swanna, David Leonhardt, Steve Gilmore, Bill Goodwin, Bobby Routch, Tom Schuman of Spyro Gyra and others.
As an educator Gaumer has been the jazz trumpet Artist/Lecturer at Moravian College since 1994 and served as Fusion ensemble director in 1998-99, 2003-04 and 2005-06. He is Artistic Director of the Pennsylvania Jazz Collective, a Lehigh Valley based non-profit jazz organization.
Trumpeter and educator Alan Gaumer continues to perform, teach and produce jazz events.
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The Jazz Voyager
Back in the Midwest to Gateway City this Jazz Voyager goes for another jazz escapade in a new venue, the Harold & Dorothy Steward Center For Jazz. Sitting next to Jazz St. Louis, the 220 seat auditorium is coupled with education programs, six soundproof practice rooms, a resource room featuring computers loaded with music, composition software, and the brand new Nancy’s Jazz Lounge.
On the marquee tonight is vocalist Diana West, stepping into the spotlight with her highly anticipated breakout performance at Jazz St. Louis. The St. Louis native is a dynamic young vocalist in her early 20s, bringing fresh, soulful energy to the stage that is rooted in the tradition but is unafraid to take bold steps forward. I am anticipating seeing this artist who is new to me.
The performance is sold out for this in-demand artist, so if you haven’t gotten your ticket you’ll have to catch her the next time.
Harold & Dorothy Steward Center For Jazz is located at 3536 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63103 For more information contact the venue at https://my.jazzstl.org.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Larry Washington was born on July 24, 1956 in Detroit, Michigan. His passion for music began in the Motor City and he started playing drums at a very young age. He knew even then that music and performing would become his career. Graduating from Southwestern High School in 1974, the following year he went on to matriculate through Wayne County Community College District.
Larry has recorded, performed and toured throughout the United States and internationally. He has performed on MTV, BET, ABC, NBC, Billboard Music Awards, Trumpet Awards, Diversity Awards, The Princess Diaries, Showgirls, The Whitehouse, and The Apollo (London), just to name a few.
Building on his success as a drummer, as a producer he has been featured in commercials, television and film. As a music composer, sound designer, and foley artist. The History Detectives, America’s Most Wanted, Drive, Social Studies, Fox Sports, Section 8, Sister Act 2 (Back in the Habit), Good Burger, Rainbird Sprinklers, Hotel Planner.com, Urban Combat,
In the studio he has worked with Louis Gossett Jr., Deniece Williams, Jeffrey Osborne and several Los Angeles, California based charities. Larry is actively developing and participating in drum clinics and music workshops for educational institutions throughout the country. He is focused on reaching out to younger musicians, and sharing his knowledge and experiences in a positive and motivational workshop environment.
Drummer, sound designer, music producer, composer, recording artist and educator Larry Washington currently lives in Los Angeles, California and continues to compose, perform, record and produce.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clarence Holiday was born Clarence Halliday on July 23, 1898 in Baltimore, Maryland and attended a boys’ school with the banjo player Elmer Snowden. Both of them played banjo with various local jazz bands, including the Eubie Blake band. At the age of 16, he became the unmarried father of Billie Holiday, who was born to 19-year-old Sarah Fagan, but rarely visited them. He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when he was 21 years old.
Holiday played rhythm guitar and banjo as a member of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra from 1928 to 1933. He went on to record the following year with Benny Carter, then Bob Howard in 1935 and worked with Charlie Turner, Louis Metcalf, and the Don Redman Big Band between 193 and 1937.
Exposed to mustard gas while serving in World War I, he later fell ill with a lung disorder while on tour in Texas. Refused treatment at a local hospital when he finally managed to see a doctor, Clarence was only allowed in the Jim Crow ward of the Veterans Hospital. By then pneumonia had set in and without antibiotics, the illness was fatal.
Guitarist and banjoist Clarence Holiday died in Dallas, Texas on March 1, 1937.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wendell “Cassino” Simpson was born on July 22, 1909. He may have studied piano under Zinky Cohn. His first recording was in 1923 with Bernie Young, then recorded with the Moulin Rouge Orchestra in 1925. Following this he joined Arthur Sims’s orchestra, recording with them in 1926. With Sims dying soon after Bernie Young took over as bandleader and Simpson remained in the ensemble until 1930.
He simultaneously recorded with Jabbo Smith’s Rhythm Aces on his 1929 Brunswick Records releases. From 1931 to 1933 he played with Erskine Tate, though he never recorded with him. Cass recorded as a leader under various names, with Jabbo Smith and Milt Hinton as sidemen. In 1933 he cut a few sides with Half Pint Jaxon, a female impersonator.
Soon after his recordings with Jaxon, Simpson apparently became mentally disturbed, and was institutionalized in 1935 in Elgin, Illinois. While there, he continued to play piano and vibraphone in a hospital dance band, and played bass drum in the hospital’s marching band.
He recorded solo piano numbers on the grounds of the hospital in the middle of the 1940s. Pianist Cass Simpson, who was best known for his associations on the Chicago, Illinois jazz scene and was never released from the hospital, died on March 27, 1952.
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