Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Moore, Jr., better known as Billy Moore was born on December 7, 1917 in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Chiefly known as an arranger for most of his jazz career, Billy wrote charts for Jimmie Lunceford, Charlie Barnet, Jan Savitt, and Tommy Dorsey in the 1940s. He also worked for publishing companies in New York City.
In the 1950s he relocated to France, where he accompanied and wrote for The Peters Sisters from 1953 to 1960. Following this, he worked from 1960 to 1963 as an arranger for Berliner Rundfunk and then accompanied the Delta Rhythm Boys on tour.
He formed his own music publishing company in order to combat the then prevalent habit of band leaders taking credit for the work of their arrangers and composers. Amongst his uncredited works is the famous countermelody to Barnet’s million-selling hit Skyliner. Moving to Copenhagen, Denmark in the 1970s, he remained active as an arranger. Being friends with Leonard Feather, he sometimes used Moore’s name for songwriting credits.
In his later years in Denmark, he was the administrator of the music foundation established in Ben Webster’s name and for whom he also worked as a business aide. He was also the manager and musical director for the European tours of the Peters Sisters. Pianist and arranger Billy Moore passed away on February 28, 1989 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Maintaining my social distancing, wearing my mask when I have to go grocery shopping or to my doctor’s office, I remain in quarantine. Pulling down off the shelves is an August 30, 1960 recording titled South Side Soul. It is the debut album by jazz pianist John Wright which was released in 1960 on the Prestige label. The supervising producer on this swinging soulful hard bop date was Esmond Edwards and engineering the session recorded at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey was Rudy Van Gelder.
TRACKS | 36:06
- South Side Soul (Esmond Edwards) ~ 5:02
- 47th and Calumet (John Wright) ~ 3:57
- La Salle St After Hours (Armond Jackson) ~ 5:21
- 63rd and Cottage Grove (Wright) ~ 4:06
- 35th St Blues (Wendell Roberts) ~ 7:00
- Sin Corner (Jackson) ~ 5:30
- Amen Corner (Roberts) ~ 5:30
- John Wright – piano
- Wendell Roberts – bass
- Walter McCants – drums
During this sabbatical from flying and investigating jazz around the globe, this Quarantined Jazz Voyager wants you to know that live music in clubs and I will be back.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ronald Mathews was born on December 2, 1935 in New York City and in his twenties, he toured internationally and recorded with Max Roach, Freddie Hubbard and Roy Haynes. He was a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the late Fifties through the 1960s. By age thirty, he was teaching jazz piano and leading workshops, clinics and master classes at Long Island University in New York City.
During the 1970s Ronnie recorded with Dexter Gordon and Clark Terry, toured and recorded on two Louis Hayes projects, the Louis Hayes~Woody Shaw Quintet and the Louis Hayes~Junior Cook Quintet. One of his longest associations and a highlight of his career was with the Johnny Griffin Quartet. For almost five years, from 1978~1982, he was an integral part of this band, forging lasting relationships with Griffin, drummer Kenny Washington, and bassist Ray Drummond.
The Eighties saw Mathews honing his role as a frontman, performing as a leader in duo, trio, and quartet configurations around the world. He again toured with Freddie Hubbard and Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Band, was the pianist for the Tony Award~winning Broadway musical, Black and Blue in 1989, and, in 1990, he was one of the artists who recorded for Spike Lee’s movie, Mo’ Better Blues.
After a stint touring and recording with the Clifford Jordan Big Band in the early 1990s, Mathews joined T.S. Monk for eight years of touring and recording three albums with the band. In 1998, Hal Leonard Books published his collection of student arrangements: Easy Piano of Thelonious Monk.
As both a mentor and musician with Generations, a group of jazz musicians headed by veteran drummer Jimmy Cobb, he contributed two new compositions for the album that was released posthumously to his death by San Francisco State University’s International Center for the Arts on September 15, 2008.
Pianist Ronnie Matthews recorded 14 albums as a leader and more than three dozen as a sideman during his career, passing away on June 28, 2008 in Brooklyn, New York.
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Three Wishes
Nica inquired of Adriano Acea what his three wishes would be and he told her:
- “I would like to play music as it should be played.”
- “I’d love to have money to make my family happy. I thinkI could enjoylife from there.”
*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…
Harry Barris was born on November 24, 1905 in New York City to Jewish parents. Educated in Denver, Colorado. he became a professional pianist at the age of 14. He led a band that toured the Far East at the age of 17.
The same year, he played the piano and occasionally sang in the Paul Ash Orchestra, while Al Rinker and Bing Crosby became members of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra as a singing duo. However, while the duo was appearing at the vast New York Paramount in 1927, sans microphones, they could not be heard by the audience. They were promptly dropped from the bill. However, a band member who knew Barris suggested that they add him to make a trio and The Rhythm Boys was formed in April 1927.
In 1930, The Rhythm Boys left Whiteman and joined Gus Arnheim’s Cocoanut Grove Orchestra. They made one more recording together, Them There Eyes but the boys decided to quit in 1931 agoing their separate ways. Harry however, changed his mind and returned to the Cocoanut Grove to complete his contract. Joining Arnheim’s singing group The Three Ambassadors.
Barris appeared in 57 films between 1931 and 1950, usually as a band member, pianist or singer. Seven of those films had Bing Crosby as the star. In 1932, Barris signed a contract to star in six shorts for Educational Pictures.
During World War II, along with Joe E. Brown, he went overseas to entertain troops. Having a lifelong drinking problem, sustaining a fall that fractured his hip in 1961, and despite a series of operations, he developed a cancerous tumor. Vocalist, pianist, and composer Harry Barris, who was one of the earliest to utilize scat singing in recordings passed away on December 13, 1962 at the age of 57 in Burbank, California.
Share a dose of a New York City composer to inspire inquisitive minds to learn about musicians whose legacy lends their genius to the jazz catalog…
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