Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Léon Clément Doucet was born on April 9, 1895 in Brussels, Belgium. For  a time he studied at the city’s Conservatoire under Arthur De Greef, who had been a pupil of Franz Liszt.

His formal training was classical, though as he traveled to the United States where he gained some influence from jazz. Some of his arrangements are still played today, including Chopinata, a jazz tribute to several works by Frédéric Chopin.

After returning to Europe, Clément became the house pianist at the Parisian cabaret Le Boeuf sur le Toit, succeeding Jean Wiéner. He and Wiéner formed a piano duo that spanned 15 years from 1924 to 1939. They performed over 2000 concerts and made over 100 recordings of jazz, blues, and classical music.

They also made a small number of recordings in which they accompanied French chansonniers. These include ten sides with Maurice Chevalier, Édith Piaf, Yvonne George, Jean Sablon and Germaine Sablon and others.

Pianist Clément Doucet transitioned at the age of 55 on October 15, 1950 in his hometown.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Alexander von Schlippenbach was born into the Schlippenbach noble family on April 7, 1938 in Berlin, Germany. He started to play piano from the age of eight and went on to study composition at Cologne under Bernd Alois Zimmermann. While studying he started to play with Manfred Schoof.

At the age of 28 he founded the Globe Unity Orchestra. In 1988, he founded the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, a big band that has over the years had, among others, Willem Breuker, Paul Lovens, Misha Mengelberg, Evan Parker, Schlippenbach’s wife Aki Takase and Kenny Wheeler.

Alexander has produced various recordings and worked for German radio channels. He played in a free jazz trio with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lovens with many players of the European free jazz community.

In 1994, he was awarded the Albert Mangelsdorff prize. He recorded 43 albums as a leader, eighteen with Globe Unity Orchestra, and another thirty-three with numerous others. Since the 1990s, pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach has explored the work of more traditional jazz composers such as Jelly Roll Morton or Thelonious Monk, recording the latter’s complete works which were released on CD as Monk’s Casino.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Stephen Russell Race was born April 1, 1921 in Lincoln, England and learned the piano from the age of five. His education from 1932 to 1937 was at Lincoln School, where he formed his first jazz group. At sixteen, he attended the Royal Academy of Music, studying composition under Harry Farjeon and William Alwyn. After leaving the academy, he wrote occasional dance band reviews for Melody Maker and, in 1939, joined the Harry Leader dance band as pianist, succeeding Norrie Paramor.

Race joined the Royal Air Force in 1941, and formed a jazz/dance quintet. After World War II, he began a long and productive career with the BBC, where his ready wit, musicianship and broad musical knowledge made him a much sought after musical accompanist for panel games and magazine shows, such as Whirligig and Many a Slip.

Simultaneously he played in the Lew Stone and Cyril Stapleton bands, and arranged material for Ted Heath. By 1949 The Steve Race Bop Group recorded some of the first British bebop records for the Paxton label. These included four sides with Leon Calvert, Johnny Dankworth, Peter Chilver, Norman Burns, Jack Fulton. He also developed a sideline arranging player piano rolls for the Artona company.

the 1950s to the 1980s, he presented numerous music programs on radio and television. Steve was the chairman of the long-running light-hearted radio and TV panel game My Music which ran for 520 episodes from 1967 to 1994. He also presented Jazz For Moderns and Jazz 625 for the BBC in the 1960s.

As a composer, he produced a number of pieces in the jazz, classical and popular idioms. Blue Acara, Esteban Cera, Faraway Music, Nicola, Ring Ding and Pied Piper aer just a few of his well known compositions. He appeared as pianist/bandleader in the 1948 film Calling Paul Temple and with Sid Colin wrote two of the songs performed by Celia Lipton. He also wrote other scores for films. His autobiography, Musician at Large, was published in 1979, and was inducted into the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Pianist, composer, radio and television presenter Steve Race had his first heart attack in 1965 and transitioned from a second attack at his home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, on June 22, 2009.

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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

Not belaboring the point, with all that is going on in the world, I am continuing to remain ever vigilant relative to the pandemic which is ever present in our lives. I can only hope you are doing the same.

My latest offering for those who enjoy good music comes from Moon Beams, a 1962 album by pianist Bill Evans. It is the first trio album recorded by Evans after the death of Scott LaFaro.

Bassist Chuck Israels replaced LaFaro and Evans recorded several songs on May 17, 1962 (#5,9), May 29, 1962 (#1, 8), June 2, 1962 (#2-4, 6-7) and June 5, 1962 (#10-11) at Sound Makers Studio, New York City. The album was released in December 1962 on the Riverside label and is a collection of ballads recorded during this period.

The recording sessions were produced by Orrin Keepnews, the woman on the album cover is Nico, who would later achieve recognition as a musical artist herself, the photographer was Peter Sahula and the cover design was by Ken Deardorff.

1. Re: Person I Knew (Bill Evans) ~ 5:44
2. Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) ~ 5:01
3. I Fall in Love Too Easily (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne) ~ 2:42
4. Stairway to the Stars (Matty Malneck, Mitchell Parish) ~ 4:53
5. If You Could See Me Now (Tadd Dameron) ~ 4:29
6. It Might as Well Be Spring (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) ~ 6:05
7. In Love in Vain (Leo Robin, Jerome Kern) ~ 5:00
8. Very Early (Bill Evans) ~ 5:06

• Bill Evans – piano
• Chuck Israels – bass
• Paul Motian – drums

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Three Wishes

Once Nica questioned Milt Sealey about three wishes he replied with:

1. 1. “I wish I could be immortal in jazz. You know, go down with a nice name.”

   2. “I’d wish that my family ~ my wife, my child, and myself ~ would live a happy and healthy life.”

   3. “I wish that people… that I live to see the day when people will accept one another more humanly. As people, you know? Period. Well, that’s it. You know?”

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