Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paul Smith also known as Paul T. Smith was born on April 17, 1922 in San Diego, California. After playing early on with Johnny Richards in 1941 and spending a couple of years in the military, the pianist played with Les Paul from 1946–1947 and Tommy Dorsey from 1947–1949, them moved to L.A. and became a studio musician.
Smith has recorded frequently as a leader both with his trios and as a soloist. As a sideman he worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Anita O’Day, Buddy DeFranco, Louis Bellson, Steve Allen, Sammy Davis Jr., Rosemary Clooney, Stan Kenton Mel Torme and Ella Fitzgerald, the later with whom he was her conductor and pianist from 1956 to 1978.
Throughout his career Smith has worked in television with Bing Crosby, Red Skelton, Dinah Shore, Nat King Cole, Carol Burnett and many more, has toured around the world and has authored a number of educational books and CDs, most of which focus on explaining his particular approach to jazz piano.
Often praised for his brilliant technique and lyrical playing, he has performed in various genres of jazz, most typically bebop but has delved into cool jazz, swing, and traditional pop. Pianist Paul Smith passed away of heart failure at the age 91 in Torrance, California on June 29, 2013.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Claude Bolling was born April 10, 1930 in Cannes, France. He studied at the Nice Conservatory in Paris. A child prodigy whose primary influence was Duke Ellington, he was playing jazz piano professionally at age 14 with Lionel Hampton, Roy Eldridge and Kenny Clarke. Drawing inspiration from the New Orleans sound of Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet and blending it with the music of Johnny Hodges, Barney Bigard and Cootie Williams created an interesting voice for the small band Bolling assembled in 1945. This combination put Claude in the midst of the trad jazz scene in Europe that evolved during the fifties.
He worked with Paul Gonsalves, Roy Eldridge, Lionel Hampton, Cat Anderson and Rex Stewart and by 1955 was leading his own orchestra. Stepping aside from his jazz recording and performance duties in the 60’s, Bolling ventured into creating, managing and producing a female pop group Les Parisiennes, composed for film and television (amassing over a hundred scores), expanded his interpretive range to include the early American modern jazz pianists like Erroll Garner, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Fats Waller and Horace Silver.
His European fans followed his decades of playing ragtime, blues, New Orleans jazz, boogie woogie and swing, however, his American devotees gained access to his suites written and arranged for classical flute, guitar, trumpet, violin and cello soloists and a mainstream jazz piano trio beginning with his collaboration with flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, a mixture of baroque elegance and modern swing that stayed at the top of the hit parade for two years and in the Billboard “Top 40” for 530 weeks, roughly ten years.
He became friends, worked with and paid tribute in his later years to Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and Lionel Hampton. Claude Bolling, at 89, a renowned jazz pianist, composer, arrange and occasional actor is still active.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carmen Mercedes McRae was born on April 8, 1920 in Harlem, New York City to Jamaican immigrant parents. She began studying piano at eight and the music of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington filled her home. Drawing inspiration from Billie Holiday, whom she met at 17, she developed and established her own distinctive voice. As a teenager she came to the attention of longtime Holiday collaborator Teddy Wilson and his composer wife, Irene Kitchings Wilson and through their influence Billie recorded her early composition “Dream of Life”.
In her late teens and early twenties, McRae worked as a secretary, sang as a chorus girl, played piano at Harlem’s famous Minton’s Playhouse where she met Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Pettiford and Kenny Clarke. By 1944 she was playing piano with Benny Carter, working with Count Basie and made her first recording as a pianist with Mercer Ellington between 1946-47. But it was her meeting of Milt Gabler that got her signed to Decca and over the next five years she produced twelve albums.
A four-year stint in Chicago from 1948 to 1952 gave her, in her own words, “Those years in Chicago gave me whatever I have now… That’s the most prominent schooling I ever had.” Upon her return to New York she landed the record contract that launched her career and got her voted best new female vocalist by Down Beat magazine.
Carmen McRae enjoyed an opulent career that would span fifty years producing memorable albums with composer Noel Coward, Sammy Davis Jr., Dave Brubeck, George Shearing, Louis Armstrong, Cal Tjader and Betty Carter. She never performed without singing at least one song associated with Lady Day and recorded tribute albums to Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk and Sarah Vaughan. She sang in jazz clubs throughout the U.S. and around the world, performed at the North Sea and Montreux Jazz Festivals and was a seven-time invitee to the Monterey’s Jazz Festival. She recorded over 60 albums and it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretations of lyrics that made her memorable.
Refusing to quit smoking, she was forced to retire in 1991 due to emphysema and on November 10, 1994 Carmen McRae, singer, composer, pianist and actress died in Beverly Hills, California from a stroke following complications from respiratory illness. She was 74.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenny Kersey was born on April 3, 1916 in Harrow, Ontario into a musical family and studied piano and trumpet while attending the Detroit Institute of Musical Arts. In 1936, Kersey moved to New York City where he played with Lucky Millinder, Billy Hicks, Frankie Newton, Billie Holiday, Roy Eldridge, Red Allen and Cootie Williams.
In 1942 he replaced Mary Lou Williams as Andy Kirk’s pianist and Kirk recorded his composition “Boogie Woogie Cocktail”. He joined the Army from 1943 to 1945, where he occasionally played trumpet in military bands, then played from 1946 to 1949 with the Jazz at the Philharmonic touring ensembles. He continued to play with noted musicians through the 1950s, including Eldridge and Allen again, as well as Buck Clayton, Edmond Hall, Sol Yaged, and Charlie Shavers.
Kersey retired from music late in the 1950s after being diagnosed with a bone ailment. He recorded twelve tunes as a bandleader – four for Savoy in 1946, two for Clef in 1949, two for Circle in 1950, and four for Foxy in 1951 which featured Hot Lips Page and Paul Quinichette and as sidemen. Kenny Kersey passed away on April 1, 1983 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
In the jazz world his moniker was Duke Jordan but he was born Irving Sidney Jordan on April 1, 1922 in Brooklyn, New York. The gifted and imaginative pianist was well known for his work with Charlie Parker during his classic quintet years with Miles Davis. From the 50’s on he had a long solo career performing in trio format after playing for periods with Sonny Stitt and Stan Getz. His most notable composition Jordu became a jazz standard when Clifford Brown adopted it into his repertoire.
He married the talented jazz singer Sheila Jordan in 1952 and the union lasted for a decade. He continuously performed throughout the sixties although he faded from the public eye until he began recording an extensive sequence of albums for Steeplechase in 1973 producing some of his best live recordings.
In 1978 he moved his residence to Copenhagen, Denmark where he lived until his death on August 8, 2006. His music always reflected the inherently melodic style that was enlivened by his delightful crisp touch and unexpected turns of phrase. Duke Jordan’s recordings can be found on Prestige, Savoy, Blue Note, Charlie Parker Records, Muse, Spotlite and Steeplechase.
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