Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Putney Dandridge was born Louis Dandridge on January 13, 1902 in Richmond, Virginia, and began performing in 1918 as a pianist in a revue titled The Drake and Walker Show. 1930 saw him working as an accompanist for tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, including appearances in the musical Brown Buddies. In 1931, he appeared in the cast of the musical revue Heatin’ Up Harlem, starring Adelaide Hall at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem. In the 1932 American film, Harlem Is Heaven, Dandridge, on the piano and reciting lyrics in a speak set, accompanies Robinson as the dancer sings “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t“.
After touring in Illinois and the Great Lakes region, Putney settled in Cleveland, Ohio, forming a band with guitarist Lonnie Johnson. This period lasted until 1934 when he attempted to perform as a solo act. He took his show to New York City, beginning a series of long residences at the Hickory House on 52nd Street and other local clubs. From 1935 to 1936, he recorded numerous sides under his own name, many of which highlighted some major jazz talents of the period, including Roy Eldridge, Teddy Wilson, Henry “Red” Allen, Buster Bailey, John Kirby, Chu Berry, Cozy Cole and more.
Appearing to vanish from the music scene in the late thirties, it has been speculated that he may have been forced to retire due to ill health. Pianist Putney Dandridge passed away on February 15, 1946 in Wall Township, New Jersey at the age of 44.
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Requisites
The Yuko Mabuchi Trio, Volume 1 is a 2017 live recording by the trio at The Brain and Creativity Institute’s Cammilleri Hall in Los Angeles, California on March 31, 2017. It was recorded in honor of the 25th Anniversary of The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society, and their President, Bob Levi who was celebrating his 70th Birthday and released on the Yarlung Records label. The executive producer was Randy Bellous.
Track List |- What Is This Thing Called Love?
- Valse Noire
- On Green Dolphin Street
- Seriously
- Yuko Mabuchi ~ piano
- Del Atkins ~ bass
- Bobby Breton ~ drums
Review by Eddie Carter
On the stage, a beautiful young woman sits at a baby grand piano unleashing an aggressive flood of sound into the audience. Behind her are two elegantly dressed gentlemen, Del Atkins on bass and Bobby Breton on drums, who match her creativity, precise timing, and articulation with their own musical artistry note-for-note. Her name is Yuko Mabuchi.
The four-song album opens with one of Cole Porter’s most recorded compositions, the 1929 classic, What Is This Thing Called Love?, composed for the Broadway musical, Wake Up and Dream. It is followed by the very pretty ballad Valse Noire by Cincinnati, Ohio composer Mark Lehman who originally wrote the tune for solo piano. The pace slows down as the second side begins with the 1947 popular song On Green Dolphin Street by Bronislaw Kaper and Ned Washington. It was composed for the film Green Dolphin Street released that year and became a jazz standard after Miles Davis recorded it on his 1958 Columbia album, Jazz Track. The album closes with Seriously by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles who wrote it for fellow singer Leslie Odom, Jr., who appeared on the weekly public radio program and podcast, This American Life.
Source: Jazztracks by Eddie Carter | Excerpt: 12/2018 | atlantaaudioclub.org
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carol Stearns Sudhalter was born on January 5, 1943 in Newton, Massachusetts and grew up in a musical family. Her father Albert played the alto saxophone in the New England area, a brother played baritone saxophone and one brother who played trumpet, cornet and wrote award-winning books on jazz.
In the early Sixties, Sudhalter began to play the flute while majoring in biology at Smith College. She continued to study flute with private teachers in Washington DC, New York, Boston, Israel, and Italy until 1978. She studied theory and Third Stream music with Ran Blake and Phil Wilson at the New England Conservatory of Music. From the 1970s on she has been teaching piano, saxophone, and flute privately, at Mannes College, and for the New York Pops Salute to Music Program.
1975 saw Carol deciding to take up the saxophone, and by 1978 relocated from Boston to New York City to join the first all-women Latin band, Latin Fever, produced by Larry Harlow. In 1986 she founded the Astoria Big Band, and she has performed with Sarah McLawler, Etta Jones, Chico Freeman, Jimmy McGriff, Duffy Jackson, and others around the New York jazz clubs, as well as domestic, Italian and British jazz festivals.
She initiated the Jazz Monday concerts at Athens Square Park between 1989 and 2001, along with several other local festivals in Queens where she resides.
A member of the Jazz Journalists Association, Sudhalter also has a chapter in Leslie Gourse’s Madame Jazz and in W. Royal Stokes’ Growing Up With Jazz. In 2012 she was nominated for the 2012 International Down Beat Readers’ Jazz Poll, and was voted 9th place in the category “Best Jazz Flutist”. She has recorded eight albums as a leader, one as a sideman, and the tenor and baritone saxophonist, flutist and pianist Carol Sudhalter continues to perform and educate.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Norosbaldo Morales was born in Puerta de Tierra, Puerto Rico on January 4, 1912. The pianist learned several instruments as a child, playing in Venezuela from 1924 to 1930, then returned to Puerto Rico to play with Rafaél Muñoz.
Emigrating to New York City in 1935, Noro played there with Alberto Socarras and Augusto Cohen. By 1939, he and brothers Humberto and Esy put together the Brothers Morales Orchestra. He released the tune Serenata Ritmica on Decca Records in 1942, which catapulted him to fame in the mambo and rhumba music world; his band rivaled Machito’s in popularity in New York in the 1940s. It was during this time that his orchestra played for the Havana Madrid nightclub.
1960 saw Morales returned to Puerto Rico and play locally, working with Tito Rodríguez, José Luis Moneró, Chano Pozo, Willie Rosario and Tito Puente. Among the musicians who played in Morales’ orchestra were Ray Santos, Jorge López, Rafí Carrero, Juancito Torres, Pin Madera, Ralph Kemp, Pepito Morales, Carlos Medina, Lidio Fuentes, Simón Madera, Ana Carrero, Pellin Rodriguez, and Avilés.
The height of his fame and record production was his production of rumba records with his sextet, done after he gave up the big band idea. His use of the piano as both melody and rhythm was highly innovative at the time. Linda Mujer, Campanitas de Cristal, Perfume de Gardenias, Me Pica La Lengua and Silencio, all songs composed by others, were four of his big successes in this line.
Pianist and bandleader Noro Morales passed away on January 15, 1964 in San Juan, Puerto Rico at age 53.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jack Reilly, also known as Sean Petrahn was born on January 1, 1932, in Staten Island, New York. At age 7, he began classical piano and gave his first recital while still in grammar school. In high school, during his teen years, he formed a jazz band that proved to be pivotal in his choice of jazz as the major musical force in his life.
From 1951 to 1953 he played in a U.S. Navy band while stationed in Puerto Rico and it was there that he met Bill Evans. After military duty, Jack received a four-year scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music majoring in piano and composition. There he met Bill Russo, Phil Woods, Zoot Sims, John Lewis, John LaPorta, and Hall Overton. The year he graduated from MSMJohn LaPorta hired Jack to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958.
The critics gave high praise for the quartet’s performance and raves for Jack’s playing. During this time he also worked with Warren Covington, George Russell, Lennie Tristano, and Jerry Wald. He moved to California briefly in the mid-1960s to study Indian classical music with Ali Akbar Khan, and returned to Manhattan where he composed the large-scale piece Requiem Mass for Chorus and Jazz Quartet. This work was performed in New York with Sheila Jordan, Jack Six, Norman Marnell, Joe Cocuzzo, and the contemporary chorale with Carol Lian conducting.
In 1967, Jack presented an entire evening of his solo and trio works at Carnegie Recital Hall. His Liturgical Jazz ~ The Psalms, sung by Sheila Jordan was a true synthesis of the blues and classical music. A second choral work, commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, was titled The Light of The Soul. The jazz musicians included Jimmy Giuffre~flute and tenor sax, Jack Six~bass, and Joe Cocuzzo~drums.
Reilly served on the faculties of New York University, Berklee College of Music, The Mannes College of Music, and the New School for Social Research. He was chairman of the Department of Jazz Studies at the New England Conservatory of Music as well as the Jazz Program at La Musica A Villa Scarsella in Diano Marina, Italy. He presented lecture/recitals at numerous universities in Europe and in North America including a presentation at the prestigious International Piano Festival and Competition at the University of Maryland.
Pianist Jack Reilly released nine albums during his career and passed away on May 18, 2018, at the age of 86.
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