Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paul Evans was born on October 18, 1904 in Lawrence, Kansas. Picking up the nickname Stump, originated in his petite size, he was largely taught music by his father, an alto horn player named Clarence Evans. He started out on the same instrument, stretching into trombone for a position in the Lawrence High School Band.
Switching back to alto saxophone not too far into his professional career, he soon became known as one of the better baritone sax players on the scene. He had a reputation for brandishing the full array of saxophones through his many band jobs, even playing the justifiably obscure C-Melody saxophone.
A move to Chicago saw him gigging with a variety of groups including King Oliver’s Original Creole Orchestra, Jelly Roll Morton, Kid Ory and Erskine Tate. He had to quit the latter band due to tuberculosis. Saxophonist Stump Evans passed away from tuberculosis at age 24 on August 29, 1928 in Douglas County, Kansas.
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Requisites
Released in 1959, it is the 7th album for Cannonball and his second on the Mercury Records subsidiary label, Emarcy. He is joined on the recording session by his brother Nat, Junior Mance, Sam Jones and Jimmy Cobb. Excellent bebop by the altoist’s original quintet.
Songs: Our Delight, Jubilation, What’s New, Straight No Chaser, If I Love Again, Fuller Bop Man and Stay On It.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenny Garrett, born October 9, 1960 in Detroit, Michigan and his father played saxophone as a hobby. After graduating from Mackenzie High School in 1978 he joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra, led by Mercer Ellington. He moved on to join the Mel Lew Orchestra playing the music of Thad Jones followed by a stint with the Dannie Richmond Quartet that focused on the music of Charles Mingus.
1984 saw him recording his first album as a bandleader, Introducing Kenny Garrett, on the Criss Cross label. Moving to Atlantic Records he recorded Prisoner of Love and African Exchange Student. Since 1990 the majority of Garrett albums are co-produced by pianist/composer Donald Brown beginning with signing with Warner Bros. Records label, releasing Black Hope in 1992. Songbook, his first album made up entirely of his own compositions, recorded in 1997, was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Over the course of his ongoing career Kenny has performed and recorded with among others, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Brad Mehldau, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Brian Blade, Marcus Miller, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Ron Carter, Elvin Jones, Geri Allen, Jack Walrath, Cedar Walton, Rodney Kendrick, Charnett Moffett and Mulgrew Miller. Best known in many circles for the five years he spent playing with Miles Davis during the trumpeter’s electric period.
Garrett has won a Grammy Award, has been nominated for a Soul Train Award, a Grammy and a NAACP Image Award nominations for Seeds from the Underground, was awarded an Echo Award in the Saxophonist of the Year in 2013 and has received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Berklee College of Music. Post-bop saxophonist and flautist Kenny Garrett who has released nineteen albums as a leader and over thirty as a sideman, continues to pursue his solo career.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ulysses Banks, nicknamed Buddy, was born on October 3, 1909 in Dallas, Texas and began playing saxophone in his youth. Moving to Los Angeles, California in the early Thirties he played with the Charlie Echols band from 1933 to 1937. He remained in the group after it was taken over by Claude Kennedy and subsequently by Emerson Scott due to Kennedy’s death. The group then scored a gig at the Paradise Cafe, and Cee Pee Johnson became its leader and played in Johnson’s ensemble until 1945.
Following his departure from the group Buddy led his own group that featured tenor saxophone and trombone as its most prominent instruments. Holding down the trombone chair was Allen Durham and then by Wesley Huff. Guitarist Wesley Pile and drummer Monk McFayalso recorded as members of this group. The ensemble played throughout southern California and recorded until 1949.
Banks led a new group in 1950, but disbanded it quickly and started playing piano, and though he accompanied Fluffy Hunter on tenor saxophone in 1953, he spent most of the rest of his life on piano. From 1953 to 1976 he enjoyed a piano-bass duo with Al Morgan. By 1980 he was playing solo piano.
Tenor saxophonist, pianist and bandleader Buddy Banks passed away on September 7, 1991 in Desert Hot Springs, California.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Phil Urso was born on October 2, 1925 in Jersey City, New Jersey and learned clarinet as a child, but switched to tenor sax while in high school. He served in the Navy during World War II and then moved to New York City in 1947.
Once he landed in the mecca for jazz from 1948 to 1954 he played with Elliot Lawrence, Woody Herman, Terry Gibbs, Miles Davis, Oscar Pettiford , Jimmy Dorsey, and Bob Brookmeyer.
In 1955, he first began working with Chet Baker, and was a prominent contributor to Baker’s Pacific Jazz releases in 1956. Urso and Baker would collaborate sporadically for some 30 years. He also recorded with Walter Bishop Jr., Horace Silver, Percy Heath, Kenny Clarke and Bobby Timmons among others.
He went on to work with Claude Thornhill late in the 1950s, but receded from national attention in later decades. Moving to Denver, Colorado he continued performing locally into the 1990s. Tenor saxophonist Phil Urso passed away on April 7, 2008 in Denver.
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