Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert C. Plater was born May 13, 1914 in Newark, New Jersey and began playing alto sax at age 12. He played locally in Newark with Donald Lambert and the Savoy Dictators in the 1930s. From 1940-42 he played with Tiny Bradshaw before spending 1942-45 serving in the U.S. military during World War II. After his discharge he worked briefly with Cootie Williams, then played intermittently with Lionel Hampton between 1946 and 1964, recording eleven albums with the band.
He also arranged with Hampton, as well as doing some freelance work on the side. In 1964 he took Frank Wess’s place in the Count Basie Orchestra, where he recorded thirty-nine albums and played until his death. His only recordings as a leader were four songs for Bullet Records in 1950.
He was the co-composer of Jersey Bounce, a popular dance number in the 1940s, recorded by various musicians including Glenn Miller and Ella Fitzgerald. Alto saxophonist Bobby Plater passed away on November 20, 1982 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
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Three Wishes
The Baroness made an inquiry of Kermit “Scotty” Scott of his three wishes were he given them and he responded with just one:
- “I wish I could get on a good recording date.”
*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…
Richard Edwin Morrissey was born on May 9, 1940 in Horley, Surrey, England. Self-taught, he started playing clarinet in his school band, The Delta City Jazzmen, at the age of sixteen with fellow pupils. He then joined the Original Climax Jazz Band before going on to join trumpeter Gus Galbraith’s Septet, where alto saxophonist Peter King introduced him to Charlie Parker’s recordings, Shortly afterward he began specializing on tenor saxophone.
Making his name as a hard bop player, Morrissey appeared regularly at the Marquee Club in 1960, and recorded his first solo album It’s Morrissey, Man! in 1961 at the age of 21 for Fontana Records. Spending most of 1962 in Calcutta, India as part of the Ashley Kozak Quartet, they played three 2-hour sessions seven days a week. Upon returning to the UK he formed his quartet and recorded three LPs, Have You Heard?, Storm Warning!, and Here and Now & Sounding Good!.
He went on to play regular gigs in London and during this time Dick also played extensively in bands led by Ian Hamer and Harry South, including The Six Sounds. He also played briefly in Ted Heath’s Big Band, Johnny Dankworth and his Orchestra, the Harry South Big Band. and Eric Burdon and The Animals’ Big Band.
The mid-1960s, saw Dick played with Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy Witherspoon, J. J. Jackson and Sonny Stitt together with guitarist Ernest Ranglin recorded with him during the Sixties and early Seventies.
In 1969, Morrissey by thenwas a many-time winner and runner-up of the Melody Maker Jazz Poll, and teaming up with another Melody Maker award-winner, guitarist Terry Smith, with whom he had worked in J. J. Jackson’s Band, to form an early jazz-rock group, If.
When If disbanded in 1975, he toured Germany and the United States, recording with the Average White Band, before meeting up with Glaswegian guitarist, Jim Mullen. With some of the members of AWB, together they formed Morrissey–Mullen, recording their first album, Up in 1976) in New York. On returning to Great Britain, Morrissey–Mullen formed another band which rapidly became Britain’s most highly acclaimed jazz-fusion band of the day. They ultimately recorded seven albums over the 16 years they were together, with Morrissey and Mullen collaborating on each other’s solo albums.
He went on to have numerous collaborations with Tubby Hayes, Bill Le Sage, Roy Budd, Ian Hamer, Ian Carr, Tony Lee, Tony Archer, Michael Garrick, Spike Robinson, Allan Ganley, Peter King, Ray Warleigh, and Hoagy Carmichael among others. Tenor and soprano saxophonist, flautist, and composer Dick Morrissey passed away on November 8, 2000.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herbert Bickford Steward was born May 7, 1926 in Los Angeles, California.
He recorded six albums as a leader and worked as a sideman with Serge Chaloff, Zoot SimsAl Cohn and Stan Kenton.
Saxophonist Herbie Steward, widely known for being one of the tenor saxophone players in Four Brothers, part of Woody Herman’s Second Herd, passed away on August 9, 2003 in Clearlake, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Owens, was born Charles M. Brown on May 4, 1939 in Phoenix, Arizona and began playing music while attending the University of San Diego. Following a stint in the United States Armed Forces, he studied at Berklee College of Music.
Working in the bands of Buddy Rich and Mongo Santamaria as an alto saxophonist in the late 1960s. In the 1970s played mostly tenor and soprano saxophone. He played in that decade with Bobby Bryant, Paul Humphrey, Diana Ross, John Mayall, Frank Zappa, Lorez Alexandria, Henry Franklin, Patrice Rushen, Gerald Wilson, and James Newton among others.
He worked with Newton again in the mid-1980s, and also played during the same decade with John Carter, Horace Tapscott, and Mercer Ellington. Later he worked with Carmen Bradford, Jeannie Cheatham and Jimmy Cheatham, and Buddy Childers.
Saxophonist and flautist Charles Owens continues to pursue excellence with his music.
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