Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marty Napoleon was born on June 2, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York and studied piano as a child. His early years in 1946 he worked with Gene Krupa and went on to work with his uncle, trumpeter Phil Napoleon in his Original Memphis Five.
He is perhaps best known for replacing Earl Hines in Louis Armstrong’s All Stars in 1952. During the decade of the 50s he also worked with his brother Teddy Napoleon, also a pianist. From 1966-1971 Marty was once again reunited and performing with Louis Armstrong.
Napoleon recorded as a sideman with Kai Winding, Charlie Ventura, Rex Stewart, Carl Barry, Herbie Fields, Teddy Reig, Cozy Cole and Allen Eager.
Marty Napoleon released one album as a leader for Bethlehem Records titled Marty Napoleon Swings and Sings, recorded with his trio “The Big Three”, “Jazz From Then Till Now” and “We 3” for other labels, and in 2012 recorded and released “Swingin’ at 90. At age 93 he currently resides in New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Russell Donald Freeman was born on May 28, 1926 in Chicago, Illinois. He was initially classically trained, but later turned toward jazz of a largely bop style. His reputation as a jazz pianist grew in the 1940s when he worked with Art Pepper, Shorty Rogers and Chet Baker. Among his best work is his extensive collaboration with Shelly Manne, especially in the 1950s and 1960s.
Freeman wrote “The Wind” with original lyrics by Jerry Gladstone and was performed as an instrumental piece during the 1950s and 1960s by the likes of Chet Baker, Leo Wright and Stan Getz as well as sung by vocalist June Christy. Russ’s piano is featured on the 1954 recording of “The Wind,” which has since become a jazz standard, for the album Chet Baker With Strings and Deep I A Dream: The Ultimate Chet Baker Collection, the latter he is featured on seven cuts. In 1991, Mariah Carey wrote her own lyrics to Freeman’s “The Wind” for her album Emotions.
Russ Freeman, bebop and cool jazz pianist, remained busy in music throughout his life, transitioning from jazz pianist to film scoring and composition before his death on June 27, 2002 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Dose A Day-Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. was born on May 27, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois and began taking piano lessons at the age of four. By 15 he joined his first jazz band, The Cleffs. The seven-piece group provided Lewis his first involvement with jazz and he would later join Cleffs drummer Isaac “Redd” Holt and bassist Eldee Young to form the Ramsey Lewis Trio.
The trio started as primarily a jazz unit and released their first album, Ramsey Lewis And The Gentlemen of Swing, in 1956. Following their 1965 single hit “The In Crowd” that reached #5 on the pop charts and the album #2 they concentrated more on pop material. Young and Holt left in 1966 to form Young-Holt Unlimited and were replaced by Cleveland Eaton and Maurice White.
By 1966, Lewis was one of the nation’s most successful jazz pianists, topping the charts in addition to “The In Crowd” with Hang On Sloopy” and “Wade In The Water”. All three singles each sold over one million copies and were awarded gold discs. Many of his recordings attracted a large non-jazz audience and in the 1970s, he often played electric piano, although by later in the decade he was sticking to acoustic and using an additional keyboardist in his groups.
In addition to recording and performing, Lewis hosted a syndicated morning show on Chicago “smooth jazz” radio station WNUA. His weekly syndicated Legends of Jazz, featured recordings from artists such as David Sanborn, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau and Miles Davis.
Ramsey has appeared on the Red Hot Organization’s compilation album, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, his Ramsey Lewis Morning Show became part of Broadcast Architecture’s Smooth Jazz Network, his Legends of Jazz became a television series, he is the artistic director of Jazz at Ravinia, serves on the Board of Trustees for the Merit School of Music and The Chicago High School for the Arts. His Ramsey Lewis Foundation helps connect at-risk children to the world of music. He continues to perform, record and tour.
Inspire A Young Mind
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Jim McNeely was on born May 18, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from the University of Illinois he moved to New York City in 1975. By ’78 he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band, spending six years as a featured soloist.
In 1981 Jim joined Stan Getz’s quartet and for the next four years served as pianist/composer. The early part of the ‘90s he held the piano chair with the Phil Woods Quintet, and from 1996 to the present day McNeely holds the position as pianist/composer-in-residence for the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
Jim has been the chief conductor for the Danish Radio Big Band in Copenhagen, Denmark, is currently artist-in-residence with the HR Big Band in Frankfurt, Germany and continues to appear as guest with many of Europe’s leading jazz orchestras such as The Metropole Orchestra in The Netherlands and The Stockholm Jazz Orchestra in Sweden.
The Grammy award winning jazz pianist, composer and arranger has recorded more than a dozen CDs under his own name, earning nine Grammy nominations between 1997 and 2006. In 2008, he was awarded a Grammy with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra for their album Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard.
Grammy-winning pianist Jim McNeely leads his own tentet, his own trio, and appears as soloist at concerts and festivals worldwide while serving on the faculties of The Manhattan School of Music, William Patterson University and is musical director of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop.
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Ellis Larkins was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 15, 1923. The pianist was the first African American to attend the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore and began his professional playing career in New York City after moving there to attend the Julliard School. Following school Larkins performed with Billy Moore and Edmond Hall.
He recorded with Coleman Hawkins, Mildred Bailey and Dickey Wells in the 1940s, Ruby Braff and Ella Fitzgerald in the Fifties recording “Ella Sings Gershwin” and “Songs In A Mellow Mood” with the latter. His 1960s work included recordings and/or performances with Eartha Kitt, Joe Williams, Helen Humes, George Gibbs and Harry Belafonte.
Though he was best known as an accompanist, Larkins recorded several solo albums in the 1950s. In the 1970s he performed regularly at several New York venues, including Gregory’s, a small bar in the east 70s. Next to Jimmy Jones, traditional jazz fans regard him as one of the most lyrical and romantic pianists in jazz history. Ellis Larkins passed away on September 30, 2002.
Take A Dose On The Road
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