Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Theodore Salvatore Fiorito, known professionally as Ted Fio Rito, was born December 20, 1900 in Newark, New Jersey into an Italian immigrant couple. His mother had sung light opera in Italy. He attended Barringer High School in Newark.
He was still in his teens when he landed a job in 1919 as a pianist at Columbia’s New York City recording studio, working with the Harry Yerkes bands: the Yerkes Novelty Five, Yerkes’ Jazarimba Orchestra and The Happy Six.
His earliest compositions were recorded by the Yerkes groups and Art Highman’s band. Fio Rito had numerous hit recordings, notably his two number one hits, My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii and I’ll String Along with You. Over the course of his life he composed more than 100 songs, collaborating with such lyricists as Ernie Erdman, Gus Kahn, Sam Lewis, Cecil Mack, Albert Von Tilzer, and Joe Young.
Moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1921 he joined the Dan Russo band and the following year became the co-leader of Russo and Fio Rito’s Oriole Orchestra and opened at Detroit, Michigan’s Oriole Terrace, with a rebranding as the Oriole Terrace Orchestra. Returning to Chicago they did their first radio remote broadcast in 1924. Throughout the 1920s the orchestra played Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cincinnati and San Francisco.
The Fio Rito Orchestra’s vocalists included Jimmy Baxter, Candy Candido, the Debutantes, Betty Grable, June Haver, the Mahoney Sisters, Muzzy Marcellino, Joy Lane, Billy Murray, Maureen O’Connor, Patti Palmer, Kay and Ward Swingle.
During the 1940s, the band’s popularity diminished, but Fio Rito continued to perform in Chicago and Arizona. He played in Las Vegas, Nevada during the 1960s. In his last years, he led a small combo at venues throughout California and Nevada until his death.
Composer, orchestra leader, and keyboardist Ted Fio Rito, who was popular on national radio broadcasts in the 1920s and 1930s, died from a heart attack on July 22, 1971 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeremy Bacon was born in New York City, New York on December 16, 1959 into a musical family that were big jazz fans. His father sang with the New York Choral Society and The Occasional Singers, an avant-garde group led by folk singer Gil Robbins. Her uncle designed album covers for Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderley and numerous others for Riverside Records.
Taking piano lessons as a child he went on to study in high school at the Center for Open Education and then jazz improvisation and composition at Oberlin. After college, Jeremy became the protégé of pianist Don Pullen. He worked regularly in a trio led by bassist Charles Fambrough, which rotated drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, trumpeters Johnny Coles and Michael Philip Mossman, saxophonists Joe Ford and Ralph Bowen, and guitarist Pat Martino.
He was musical director for Joey Arias’ Billie Holiday show at Carnegie Hall and accompanied many vocalists, including Kristin Chenoweth and Jeanie Bryson, daughter of Dizzy Gillespie. He recorded two albums as a leader Cloud Hands and Cage Free: Free Range, and Travels with the band Big Train. Bacon lent his talents to three recordings with saxophonist Joey Cavaseno, and one with vocalist Queen Esther.
Having established himself on the East Coast, a move to the Pacific Northwest in 2018 opened a new audience, performing regularly as a leader and accompanist. He taught piano on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts, accompanied dance classes in the theater department, and performed with Seattle JazzED at many regional elementary schools.
Jazz pianist Jeremy Bacon died at Franciscan Hospice House in Tacoma, Washington on July 8, 2024, after months of treatment for metastatic colon cancer. He was 64 years old.
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The Jazz Voyager
Flying back to the West Coast and landing in that city by the bay to drive across the Golden Gate to Oakland to once again be a part of the audience at Yoshi’s with great expectations for another evening of great music.
This Jazz Voyager has a penchant for that side of our country. It’s a little over an hour from Napa Valley vineyards for those of you who want a little wine tasting excursion and a thirty minute drive to Muir Woods for some solitude to one of my favorite nature stopoffs.
This week I’ll be catching a musician I haven’t seen in a couple of decades and looking forward to seeing what new he has to offer. Grammy and Emmy winning pianist and composer Robert Glasper is taking the spotlight and bringing his new group Dinner Party with Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder.
Yoshi’s is located at 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland, CA 94607. For more information visit yoshis.com.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill McGuffie was born on December 11, 1927 in Carmyle near Glasgow, Scotland. After three years studying the piano he had an accident as a child which caused the loss of his second finger of his right hand, but despite the accident he started playing again and modified his technique. By the time he turned eleven he was awarded the Victoria Medal for his piano proficiency by the Victoria College, Glasgow.
Finding it difficult he decided to stop playing until friends and colleagues suggested playing dance music. Towards the end of World War II when he was 17, he moved to London and began a career in 1946 playing in the Teddy Foster Orchestra at the Lyceum.
Working with other top bands followed until 1952 when he got his big break when the BBC formed their own show band run by Cyril Stapleton. McGuffie was a featured artist with a big public following, which led to a recording contract and he was voted in top place in the Melody Maker readers’ poll from 1953 to 1955. This led to him appearing in the early Esquire jazz poll winners records and recorded with trumpeter Kenny Baker’s Dozen.
He made a limited number of records which were jazz tinged and a big band record. Bigger success came with his light music and his albums with strings. Noted for his great musicianship and his impeccable good taste, his jazz records with the Kenny Baker Dozen and one track from the Melody Maker’s All-Stars are available. He also recorded albums with no jazz content, and worked extensively with bandleader Joe Loss, where he was featured.
He won an Ivor Novello Award in 1960 for his composition Sweet September, a Song Writers’ Guild Badge of Merit, and the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors Gold Badge of Merit.
Pianist Bill McGuffie, who went on to be a film composer and conductor, and with the onset of cancer, died on March 22, 1987 at the age of 59.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jim Hession was born on December 10, 1947 in Pasadena, California, where he studied piano with composer Oscar Rasbach. By the time he turned twenty he was a fixture in the traditional jazz scene, with his incredibly accurate two-handed piano style. He was a founding member of the Maple Leaf Club, receiving his degree in composition from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where he studied under Paul Chihara and Lalo Schifrin.
Jim met and began recording with Eubie Blake and while recording with Eubie Blake in New York City he began exploring more contemporary jazz venues, while retaining his handle on traditional jazz styles like ragtime, stride and boogie-woogie.
He met his future wife Martha while they were attending UCLA, where she was studying piano and voice. She began singing professionally with Jim and started a professional association with the Walt Disney Company in 1967 until relocating to the Gulf Coast in 2003.
Over the years they have performed with such luminaries as Teddy Wilson, Al Hirt, Bob Crosby, Johnny Guarnieri, Max Morath, Shelton Brooks, Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, and Disney songwriters the Sherman Brothers. They have acquired an incredible knowledge of the history of American music and hold 85,000+ pieces, one of the largest privately-held collections of original sheet music in the United States.
They have lectured at many colleges and educational venues across the country. The couple have performed as a jazz duo, headlined the American Jazz Quintet, appeared on television, produced stage shows, and historical lectures. Pianist Jim Hession and Martha Hession continue to bring a level of talent and versatility not often found on the music scene.
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